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FAERAGUT IN MOBILE BAY. 



THE STORY 

OF THE 

UNITED STATES NAVY 



JTcrr Bo^' 



BY 



BENSON J? LOSSING, LL.D. 



ILLUSTRATED 




NEW YORK 
HARPER & BROTHERS, FRANKLIN SQUARE 

1881 



Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1880, by 

HARPER & BROTHERS, 
In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington, 



All rights reserved. 



^ \9. 



/ 



J o;^ 



PREFACE. 



This little work was prepared at the suggestion of 
Captain S. B. Luce, U.S.:N^., the commander of the train- 
ing-ship Minnesota. Desirous of having it correct in 
every particular, I submitted the manuscript to the Navy 
Department. It was returned to me with a letter from 
Commodore Earl English, U.S.N., chief of the Bureau 
>f Equipment and Eecruits, to whom it w\as referred, 
1 which he w^'ote : 

" I am much pleased with your beautiful and instruc- 
tive ' Story of the Navy,' and I congratulate you on hav- 
ing performed a labor which will contribute so much to 
the pleasure and instruction of the youth of our country. 
Such a bright -spirited work will refresh the memory 
of the noble deeds of our departed naval heroes in the 
minds of the people." 

Lieutenant-commander B. P. Lamberton, IT.S.N., kind- 
ly consented to read the proof-sheets and correct any 
errors in the use of nautical terms to which a layman 
might be liable ; and so has been secured for the book 
that which is most desirable, truthfulness in narrative 
and correctness in expression. 

The same care has been used in the choice of illustra- 
tions. They are correct pictures of men and things. 
These, with the narrative, form a comprehensive outline 



vi PREFACE. . 

history of the navy and its work, by which may be es- 
timated the importance of its services in achieving our 
independence, in establishing the nation, in maintaining 
the Union, and in preserving our free institutions. 

I hoj)e this book may serve to stimulate my young 
countrymen, who are to be the future guardians of the 
Republic, to a more extended perusal of our national his- 
tory and the biographies of the principal actors in it ; and 
by so enlarging their knowledge of men and events con- 
spicuous in that history, have their love for their coun- 
try deepened, their reverence for its institutions strength- 
ened, and be made to feel more and more the value of 
the precious privileges of an American citizen. 

Benson J. Lossing. 



ILLUSTRATIONS. 



PAGE 

Farragut in Mobile Bay. . . . Frontispiece 

George IIL 3 

A Stamp. • 4 

Boston Tea-pai-ty 6 

David Kinnison '^ 

Jonathan Haningtou 8 

Floating Battery, 1T75 13 

Admiralty Seal 15 

Esek Hopkins • 1^ 

Hoisting First Naval Flag 17 

Dr. Franklin on his way to France.. 21 

Benedict Arnold 24 

Nicholas Biddle 28 

Count de Vergeunes 31 

Monument to Hinman 33 

Count D'Estaing 35 

Captain Silas Talbot 36 

Dr. Franklin 39 

John Paul Jones 42 

Jones's Medal 4T 

Commodore Whipple 50 

Joshua Barney 51 

William Barton 59 

Richard Dale <^6 

Fight between the Constellation and 

La Vengeance ii 1 

Truxtuu's Medal '^3 

Naval Pitcher 74 

Trnxtun's Monument 74 

Algiers in 1800 '<7 

Naval Monument 85 

Preble's Medal 86 

Lynn Haven Bay 92 

James Barron ^3 

Gnn-boats '>5 

Esca])e of the Constitution 105 



Isaac Hnll 1<>!) 

Hall's Medal 112 

Constitution and Ouerriere . , 114 

General Brown's Gold Box 116 

James Dacres 117 

Hull's Monument 119 

Jacob Jones 120 

Jones's Medal 122 

A Wasp on a Frolic 123 

The Biddle Urn 124 

Decatur's Medal 129 

William Baiubridge 131 

Bainbridge's Medal 132 

James Lawrence 135 

Lawrence's Medal 136 

Hornet and Peacock 137 

Fac-simile of Lawrence's Letter 139 

The Chesa%>eake and Shannon enter- 
ing the Harbor of Halifax 143 

Brolie's Silver Plate 146 

William Henry Allen 147 

Graves of Burrows, Blyth, and Wa- 
ters 150 

Bnrrows's Medal 151 

David Porter 153 

Porter's Fleet at Nooaheeva 160 

The Essex fighting the Phoebe and 

Cherub 1^5 

Porter's Monument 108 

John Rodgers 1^2 

Sackett's Harbor in 1S14 176 

Isaac Chauncey 1*^8 

JesseD. Elliott ISO 

Bnflalo Harbor, 1812 181 

Oliver H. Perry 18^ 

Mouth of Cascade Creek in 1S60. ... 185 



Vlll 



ILLUSTRATI0N1S. 



Pnt-in-bay 187 

Perry's Battle-flaj? 190 

Fac-simile oi" Perry's Despatch 192 

John Bull and Queen Charlotte 193 

Perry's Statue at Cleveland 195 

York in 1813 198 

Powder Magazine at the Water's 

Edge 199 

Queenstown in 1812 201 

Destruction at Sodus Bay 202 

Light-house on Horse Island 203 

Tornado on Lake Ontario 20G 

Thomas Macdonough 209 

Sir James Lucas Yeo 212 

Place of Battle at Big Sandy Creek, 214 

View from Cumberland Head 218 

Macdonough's Medal 220 

Fulton the First 222 

Section of Floating Battery 223 

Chauncey's Monument 224 

Chesapeake Bay 227 

Remains of Fortifications on Craney 

Island 228 

Entrance to Bouaventure 229 

New London in 1S13 231 

Crosby's Wharf 233 

Charles Morris 234 

Mouth of the Penobscot 235 

Morris's Monument 236 

Johnston Blakeley 237 

Blakeley's Medal 238 

Lewis Warrington 240 

Warrington's Medal 241 

Barney's Spring 243 

Ruins of the Capitol after the Fire. 244 

Ruins of the President's House 245 

Charles Stewart at the Age of 

Eighty-six 247 

Stewart's Medal. 250 

The Constitution, 1S60 251 

Stephen Decatur 253 



PAGE 

James Biddle 255 

Riddle's Medal 256 

Clipper-built Privateer 260 

Samuel C. Reid 274 

Peace Medal 279 

Kalorama 280 

Decatur's Monument 281 

Matthew C. Perry 285 

Japanese Government Boat 286 

Visit of the Japanese Officials to 

Commodore Perry 287 

Star of the West 289 

Dix's Famous Order 292 

Hiram Paulding 294 

A. H. Foote 298 

Iron-clad Gun-boat, 1814 299 

S. F. Dupont 300 

Charles Wilkes 303 

Mortar-boats on the Mississippi 305 

D. D. Porter 309 

The Hartford 311 

D. G. Farragut 314 

Theodore R. Timbey 316 

Fight between the Monitor and Mer- 

rimac 319 

The Sumter 323 

The Alabama 324 

Sinking of the Alabama 325 

Porter's Gun-boat Ram 329 

The Indianola 330 

Bird's-eye View of Charleston 335 

The Neiv Ironsides 339 

Porter's Guu-boats passing the Rap- 
ids 343 

Destruction of the Tecumseh 347 

Medal of Honor 351 

A Blockade-runner 300 

Destruction of the Dorothea 3G4 

Robert Fulton 306 

Torpedo Buried in the Sand 369 

Naval Apprentices 381 



STORY OF THE UNITED STATES NAVY. 



CHAPTER I. 

My Young Countrymen, — I am going to tell yon a plain, 
straightforward story about the career of one of the navies 
which belong to the people of the United States ; for you must 
remember that there are two kinds of navies. 

One is a mercantile navy — a navy of peace — carrying on the 
trade and commerce of our country at home and abroad ; the 
other is a protective navy — a navy for war — always ready to 
protect the mercantile navy in its beneficent labors and pursuits, 
whether in our own waters or in distant seas. It is ever will- 
ing to sustain the honor of the American flag, to assert the 
rights of American citizens, and to support the dignity of our 
Republic. 

It is the story of the protective navy, or Navy for War, 
which I am now to relate — not in minute detail. I shall give 
you only an outline sketch of its more important achievements, 
which you may fill in by extended reading as you grow to the 
full stature of American citizens. 

The story is told, not for your amusement only, but for your 
instruction and inspiration as well. You may learn from it 
what a strong right arm of power for good is an efficient 
protective navy in the hands of a righteous people, preventing 
war. by being prepared for war. You may also learn with 

1* 



2 STORY OF THE UNITED SPATES NAYY. 

what bravery, skill, fortitude, and unselfish devotion your coun- 
trymen have given their best energies to the task of achieving 
our independence, and in establishing, supporting, and preserv- 
ing our free government and its dearest interests, by their valor 
and wisdom on the sea. 

I hope this lesson will help to inspire you to emulate their 
zeal and patriotism in whatever sphere of public life in which 
you may be called to act, whether on the land or on the sea, 
that each of you may justly bear the honorable name of a 
good American Citizen. 

Before w^e enter upon the story of the Navy of the United 
States, let us first observe 

HOW^ THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA CAME INTO EXISTENCE. 

The young Prince George William Frederick, son of the de- 
ceased Prince of Wales, was riding on horseback near the pal- 
ace of Kew one fine morning in October, 1760, when a messen- 
ger rode up to him in haste and saluted him as monarch of 
Great Britain. His grandfather, the old king, had just been 
found dead in a private room in St. James's Palace ; and as 
" the king never dies," according to the English Constitution, 
the young prince, heir to the throne, was proclaimed sovereign. 

George, as usual, was accompanied by his tutor, the Earl of 
Bute, a gay Scotch courtier, and a favorite of the young king's 
mother. He had unbounded influence over the prince, and 
now exercised it when the latter had become king. 

William Pitt, the great "Commoner of England," was the 
old king's prime -minister, but George discarded him, and put 
Bate in his place. At the helm of the Ship of State, the Scotch- 
man started on <a perilous voyage of rash measures, and was 
running her blindly among reefs and shoals, when her guid- 
ance was intrusted to niore competent hands. 

But the new pilot was not much wiser, politically, than Bute. 
The king was a virtuous, easy, good-natured soul, not over- 



GEORGE THE THIRD. 3 

burdened with wit or even with common-sense, and, like a ma- 
jority of such men, he was sometimes very stubborn. But he 
was honest. His money-chest had been emptied by the ex- 
penses of great wars, and he thought well of the suggestion of 
his prime -minister, that money might easily be raised from 
the American subjects of the crown by means of taxation. 




GEOKGE III. 



Wise men, who knew something of the spirit of the Ameri- 
cans, shook their heads. Others told the king plainly that 
such a measure w^ould be offensive to the Americans, who were 
dutiful and loyal, and therefore it would be unwise and dan- 
gerous. But the king stubbornly adhered to it. 



STORY OF THE UNITED STATES NAVY. 



" I have a right to tax my subjects," he said. 
"Not without their consent," replied the Americans. "No 
Englishman at home would submit to taxation without he 
agreed to it by his representatives in Parliament, for the Great 
Charter of England forbids it." 

So a great quarrel was begun that continued about ten years 
before the parties came to blows. The Americans said: "If 
you tax us you must allow us representatives in Parliament " — 
or the National Legislature. 

" No," said the king. " The Parliament has the supreme 
power and the undoubted right to levy taxes, and it shall be 
done. Willing or unwilling, you must contribute to the ex- 
penses of the government." 

Parliament thereupon passed a law to 
compel the Americans to pay a specified 
tax upon every piece of paper or parch- 
ment used by them for legal purposes, 
such as deeds, mortgages, promissory 
notes, marriage licenses, etc., the amount 
of such tax being expressed by a stamp 

!j ii" ; "^^^^iJ.^S^ J secured to or printed on the paper as 
I p ^^-^-^^■^^' , our postage-stamps are. 
I III I II iliii|iiiiin:.iij|i;iL;iiHiii«i,ii; .iiilii|jLiiii!i;iiii;r;:iiil,:iiiiiiiii!i,l|i.m::«'jiiiiii;l ml A " IT i i 

ine Americans resolved not to use 

A STAMP. 

these stamps ; and when men brought 
them over from England to sell them, the holders were abused, 
and were compelled to give up the business of " Stamp Dis- 
tributers." The Americans did more ; they refused to buy 
goods in Great Britain so long as the Stamp Act was in force. 
The British merchants, feeling the loss of trade, clamored loud- 
ly for a repeal of the act, and it was done. 

,Then the Parliament resolved that the Americans should pay 
an import duty, as it vvas called (a certain percentage of the 
value), on many articles which they should receive from Great 
Britain. This taxation was levied without their consent, as 




THE BOSTON TEA-PAETY. 5 

before, and they refused to pay the duties. Men sent to col- 
lect them by force, if necessary, were roughly handled in Bos- 
ton, and British troops were sent there to enforce the laws. 
Then there were lively times in the New England capital. 

These troops w^ere insolent, and greatly irritated the people. 
Quarrels took place almost every day. On a cold, frosty night 
in early March, 1770, a mob of citizens assailed the soldiers, 
who fired upon the crowd, and mortally wounded some of them.* 
The excitement was very great ; and the next morning, as a 
measure of prudence, the soldiers were removed from the city 
to a fortress on an island in the harbor. 

Finally, Parliament ceased to tax anything in which the 
Americans were concerned, excepting the luxury of tea. The 
tax was very small ; but the principle involved was the same, 
whether the burden laid was great or little. " Taxation with- 
out representation," said the Americans, " is tyranny." They 
resolved not only to abstain from the use of tea, but not to 
allow a cargo of the plant to be landed on their shores. 

Two ships came into Boston harbor laden with teas, and pre- 
pared to land their cargoes. A great public meeting was held, 
and many citizens, disguised as Mohawk Indians, went on board 
the vessels, broke open sixty chests of tea and poured their 
contents into Boston harbor. This is known as " The Boston 
Tea-party." It occurred on a cold night in December, 1773. 
David Kinnison, one of the young men who cast the tea over- 
board, lived until 1852, and died in Chicago when he was 115 
years of age. 

The king and his ministers were very angry, and called the 
Bostonians " rebels." Their port was shut up against com- 
merce, and the public offices were removed to Salem. All the 
other colonies sympathized with Massachusetts, of which Bos- 
ton was the capital. They resolved to stand by each other. 
A grand committee, composed of men from each colony, met 
at Philadelphia early in September, 1774, to consider the state 



6 STORY OF THE UNITED STATES NAVY. 

of public affairs and form plans for the future. This \Yas 
called a Continental Congress. 



^^^^^^^^ 




l4lf"l' 'l|i/ 



One of the most important acts of that First Continental 
Congress was to resolve to stand by Massachusetts in its re- 
sistance to British oppression. They also petitioned the king 
for justice : set forth in clear and strong language the reasons 



PREPARATIONS FOR WAR. 



for their opposition to measures of Parliament, and formed an 
association or compact, by wliicli it was agreed that the people 
of the colonies should refrain from trading with those of Great 
Britain, until the government should be just toward the Amer- 




DAVID IflNNlSON. 



British troops were then in Boston to force the people to 
submit to obnoxious laws. The people everywhere were in- 
dignant. They resolved to maintain tlieir rights at all hazards. 
Thoughtful men said, " We must fight !" The people prepared 
for war. In Massachusetts, they collected military stores for 
the purpose at Concord, a few miles from Boston, and General 
Gage, the military commander in that city, sent out troops to 
seize them. 



8 STORY OF THE UNITED STATES Na Y. 

The farmers, young and old, had formed military bands, 
who were ready to act at a minute's warning. Tlieso were 
called Minute-men. They were always wide awake. At Lex- 
ington a few of them had assembled early in the morning of 
April 19th, 1775, to meet the British soldiers on their way to 
Concord. A fight ensued, and some of the Minute-men were 
killed. The whole country was aroused; and the farmers, 
seizing such arms as w^ere at hand, flocked toward Concord. 
They soon drove the British invaders back to Boston pell-mell, 
slaying many of them in their flight. Jonathan Harrington, 




JUNATUAN lIAIiUINGTON. 



then a sprightly youth, who played the fife for the Minute-men 
on Lexington Green, lived until 1854, when he died, at the age 
of 95 vears. 



AN AEMY AT CAMBRIDGE. 9 

The news of this affair spread over New England, and with- 
in three days a motley, undisciplined army of full twenty 
thousand men had o-athered at Cambrido-e, before Boston. 
They had all sorts of arms, were dressed in all sorts of cloth- 
ing", and formed a most grotesque appearance. Almost every- 
body assumed the right to be captain. AVe may imagine their 
call to arms and their discipline had been after the following 
fashion, desci'ibed by one of their rhymers : 

" Come out, ye Continentallers ! 
We're going for to go 
To fight the red-coat enemy, 
Who're very cute, you know, 

*' .Kow, shoulder arms ! Eyes right and dress ! 
Front ! (Dave, pull up your hose !) 
Step ! whoop ! That's slick ! now carry arms ! 
(Mike Jones, turn out your toes !) 

" Charge bagnet ! that's your sort, my boys ! 
Now quick-time ! March ! That's right : 
Just so we'd poke the enemy 
If they were but in sight. 

" Bill Sneezer ! keep your canteen down, 

We're going for to travel." 
" Capting, I Avants to halt a bit. 

My shoe is full of gravel !" 

Bat these men, awkward it may be, and not very learned — 
earnest toilers — were as earnest patriots, and beneath their 
linsey-woolsey jackets beat hearts as warm with love of family 
and country, as any in the land. They knew their rights, and 
knowing, dared maintain them. They were brave and zealous, 
and were the kind of men who, in the field, achieved the in- 
dependence of our beloved country. 

This rude army became the jailers to the British troops in 
Boston, who dared not venture out again for some time. Fi- 
nally, when more soldiers came, with distinguished generals to 
lead them — Howe, Clinton, and Biirgoyne — and it was per- 



10 STOKY OF THE UNITED, STATES NAVY. 

ceived that the Americans were making preparations to drive 
them into the sea, they salUed out to attack the patriots, and 
then tlie severe battle of Bunker's Hill was fought. At the 
same time, the second Continental Congress, sitting at Pliila- 
delphia, adopted the armed multitude at Cambridge as a " Con- 
tinental Army," and appointed George Washington, of Vir- 
ginia, as its commander-in-chief. lie took charge of the array 
early in July, 1775, and began the siege of Boston. In March 
following he drove the British troops to their ships, and they 
sailed away eastward to Nova Scotia. 

The King and Parlian:ient treated the Americans as rebels. 
They sent fleets and armies to enslave them. Despairing of 
justice, the Americans longed for independence ; and on the 
2d of July, 1776, the Congress resolved that the United Col- 
onies were " free and independent States." Two days after- 
ward (July 4th) they adopted and signed a paper in which were 
given their reasons for such a resolution. This paper is known 
as The Declaration of Independence. For nearly seven years 
the Americans fought to secure their indepeudence, and were 
successful. By their valor and wisdom they founded a nation- 
al government, under the title of The United States of Amer- 
ica — the Great Republic of the western hemisphere — our 
country — which has a foremost rank among the greater na- 
tions of the earth. 

Now% my young countrymen, was not that a noble and right- 
eous struggle of a virtuous people against wrong and oppres- 
sion? They had appealed to God, the wise Disposer of all 
human events, for the rectitude of their intentions, and, with 
a firm reliance on his support, they had mutually pledged to 
each other their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor. 
But they well knew the wisdom of the old heathen saying: 
"Jupiter [or God] helps those who help themselves," and acted 
accordingly, as we shall perceive presently. 



DESTRUCTION OF THE '' GASPEE. ' 11 



CHAPTER II. 

The British government had a large navy : the American 
colonies had none. In the war then begun (1*775) the colo- 
nies would be powerless on the sea. British armed ships 
might burn and plunder their seaport towns ; land British 
troops, and materials for war, wherever they pleased ; destroy 
every American merchant- vessel which they might meet, and 
put an end to American commerce. The Americans had to do 
something to relieve themselves of their helplessness. 

There were bold and skilful seamen in Rhode Island, who had 
already had something to do with the British navy. In 1772, 
an English armed schooner (the Gaspee) was in Narraganset 
Bay, to enforce obnoxious British laws. It played the tyrant 
so offensively, that, on a dark and stormy night in June, Cap- 
tain Abraham Whipple, a veteran seaman, went down the bay 
from Providence, with some brother sailors, in open whale- 
boats, and burnt the offending vessel. The British govern- 
ment tried to find out who did it, but so true to each other 
were the actors that inquiries were in vain. Three years after- 
ward, when the bay was blockaded by an English frigate, and 
her commander knew that Whipple was the leader of the of- 
fending party, he wrote to the culprit, saying : 

"You, Abraham Whipple, on the 17th of June, 1772, burnt 
his Majesty's vessel the Gaspee^ and I will hang you to the 
yard-arm." 

To this note Whipple replied: 



12 STOKY OF THE UNI'^ED STATES NAVY. 

"To Sir James Wallace. 
" Sir, — Always catcli a man before you hang liim. 

" Abraham Whipple." 

The British commander, irritated by this impudent note, 
tried hard to catch the defiant sailor ; but he never did, and 
W^hipple was never hanged. 

The Legislature of Rhode Island fitted up two armed vessels, 
to drive Sir James and his obnoxious frigate out of Narragan- 
set Bay. These vessels were placed under the command of 
Captain Whipple, and he had the honor of firing the first gun 
in the naval service of the patriots of the Revolution. So it 
was that in the smallest colony in America the germ of the 
United States Navy was first planted. 

In Washington's army at Cambridge were many soldiers 
from Marblehead and other New England seaports, whose daily 
toil had been on the sea. The hint given by the government 
of Rhode Island caused Washington to authorize the fitting out 
of several vessels as privateers, and he manned them with these 
sailor-soldiers. They were very active ; and it was not long 
before they had captured several transports, filled with military 
supplies needed by the Americans. Captain Broughton, of Mar- 
blehead, received a naval commission from Washington, dated 
September 2d, 111 5 — the first of the kind issued by the Conti- 
nental Congress through its authorized agents. Washington 
also caused two floating batteries to be constructed, armed and 
manned, and they were placed in the Charles River. 

What are privateers and transports ? 

Privateers are vessels belonging to one private person or 
more, sailing with a license from government, in time of war, 
to seize, plunder, and destroy the ships and other property of 
the enemy wherever found afloat. Transports are vessels 
used for cari']y^ing troops, stores, and materials for war. 

Washington established rules for the division of prize- 



MANLY, THE NAVAL PIONEER. 13 

money among the privateers, which the Continental Congress 
afterward approved and made lawful. Encouragement was 
given to citizens to go into the business, and many did so, be- 
lieving it to be just because it was lawful. Most of the offi- 
cers of these early sea-rovers were inefficient. Captain John 
Manly, who had been on the sea nearly thirty years, was a 
notable exception. He was one of the skilful fishermen of Mar- 
blehead, and noted for bravery in his avocation. He, almost 
alone, maintained the character of a bold and expert naval 
commander. Washington gave him the commission of Cap- 
tain. He selected a choice crew^, and soon afterward they capt- 
ured three British ships as they were entering Boston harbor. 
One of them was laden with heavy guns, mortars, and intrench- 
ing tools : just what the Americans, besieging Boston, were 
then in need of. 



Fr,l)ATING liATTKKY, 1775. 

Manly and his crew became a terror to the British, and they 
sent out an armed vessel from Halifax to capture them ; but 
the commander was too wary and skilful a mariner to be easi- 
ly caught. In his gallant little schooner Lee he roamed along 
the New England coasts, capturing prize after prize among the 
British vessels. Congress appointed him captain in the Con- 
tinental Navy which was soon afterward created ; and, until 
he was made a prisoner himself, he performed gallant deeds 
for the good cause. With the frigate Hancoch, carrying thir- 
ty-two guns, he captured the British man-of-war Fox; but 
soon afterward his vessel was seized by the English ship Rain- 



14 STOKY OF THE unit*:d states navy. 

bow^ of forty guns, and Manly remained a prisoner until near 
tlie close of the war. 

It was perceived at the beginning of the struggle that the 
colonists must have a naval force to protect their seaport 
towns and tlieir little commerce; but the Continental Con- 
gress, engaged in affairs of more immediate importance, de- 
ferred action until October, 1775, when they resolved "that a 
swift-sailing vessel, to carry ten carriage -guns and an appro- 
priate number of swivels," should be fitted out for a cruise of 
three months for the purpose of intercepting British transports. 
They soon afterward ordered another vessel to be built; and 
they appointed seven members of their body a committee to 
direct naval affairs. It was styled The Marine Committee. 
So was first laid the foundation of the naval system of the 
United States, that committee performing the duties of the 
Secretary of the Navy in our day. 

The Marine Committee consisted of Silas Deane, John Lang- 
don, Christopher Gadsden, Stephen Hopkins, Joseph Hewes, 
Richard Henry Lee, and John Adams. These seven men, from 
seven different colonies, afterward became distinguished in 
American history. Deane was a foreign ambassador; Gads- 
den w^as a leader of Revolutionary patriots in South Carolina ; 
Langdon was Governor of New Hampshire ; Hopkins, Hewes, 
Lee, and Adams were signers of the Declaration of Indepen- 
dence ; and Adams became the second President of the United 
States. In due time the Marine Committee had an Admiralty 
Seal for their documents, which Congress had adopted. 

Later in 1775, Congress, impressed with the absolute necessi- 
ty of a navy, ordered TTitrteen more vessels to be built. It is 
well to remember the names of these vessels, as determined by 
Congress — the first projected American war fleet — for a portion 
of them assisted in achieving our independence. Here they 
are: 

Washington, (^?ivvy\wg 32 guns; Randolph ., Z2 \ Effingham, 



FIRST NAVAL COMMANDERS. 



15 



28 ; Delaioare, 24 ; Raleigh, 32 ; Hancock, 32 ; Boston, 24 ; 
Warren, 32; Providence, 28; Virginia, 28; Tnunbnll, 28; 
Congress, 28 ; and Monigomerg, 28. Other vessels were pur- 
chased and put afloat while these were a-building, some of them 
quite small. 

Who shall command these vessels? was a serious question, 
somewhat difficult to answer. There were no men in the colo- 
nies trained for a war navy. There were enough men of cour- 
age and skilled seamanship ; and of these the Congress pro- 
ceeded to appoint Esek Hopkins, of Rhode Island, then nearly 
sixty years of age, " commander-in-chief," with Dudley Sal- 
tonstall, Abraham Whipple, Nicholas Biddle, and John B. Hop- 
kins, captains. They also appointed a suitable number of first, 




ADMIRALTY SEAL. 



second, and third lieutenants. Among the first lieutenants ap- 
pointed was John Paul Jones, a young Scotchman less than 
thirty years of age, who became a famous naval hero before 
the war closed. Hopkins was to be regarded as holding the 
same relative official rank in the navy that Washinsjton did in 



16 STORY OF THE UNITED STATES NAVY. 

the army. He was sometimes called admiral, but generally 
commodore. 

The first regular cruisers sent to sea by the new government 
were the sloop Hornet, 10 guns, and schooner Wasp, 8 guns. 
They were equipped at Baltimore by the Marine Committee. 




ESICK HOPKINS. 



These, with the Lexington, commanded by Captain Barry, of 
Baltimore, joined the squadron under Commodore Hopkins, 
that left the Delaware in February, 1776, to operate against 
Governor Dunmore, then making war upon the inhabitants of 
the Virginia coast region. 

Hopkins was ambitious, and, without instructions from his 
superiors, pushed on farther southward, seized a town on New- 
Providence, one of the Bahama Islands, and carried off one 
hundred cannons and a large quantity of stores. Then he sailed 
for the New England coast with his spoils. While off the east 
end of Long Island, he captured two small British vessels, and 



HOISTING THE FIEST NATIONAL FLAG. 



17 



with bis prizes entered New London harbor, in Connecticut. 
He bad lost twenty-three men during his cruise. Congress, 
offended because Hopkins bad departed from bis instructions, 
and failed to capture 
a laro-e Eno-lisb vessel 
Nvbich bis small ones 
had encountered, dis- 
missed him from the 
service the next year. 
No "commander-in- 
chief " of the navy 
was afterward appoint- 
ed. 

Of course each ves- 
sel of the little Conti- 
nental navy bore a 
flag — an ensign of au- 
thority. What kind 
of a flag did Congress 
prescribe ? None what- 
ever. Each commander 
was allowed to choose 
his own device. It is 
said that Lieutenant 
John Paul Jones 
raised, with his own 
hand, the first flag 
ever displayed at the 
mast-head of a regu- 
Air American cruiser. 
That vessel was the 
Alfred, Hopkins's flag- 
ship, and the banner 

was raised at IMiiladel- hoisting fikst naval flag. 




18 STORY OF THE UNIT:^D STATES NAVY. 

phia early in February, 1776. It was composed of a white 
field, with the representation of a pine-tree in the centre. Over 
this were the words "Liberty Tree," and under it, "Appeal 
TO God." Another flag was composed of thirteen stripes, al- 
ternate red and white, indicating the union of the thirteen col- 
onies, with a representation of a rattlesnake across it, and the 
words, either of petition or of warning, "Don't tread on me !" 

We have seen that Captain Barry, then thirty years of age, 
commanded the brig Lexington^ 14 guns. He had a sharp 
fight for an hour, at the middle of April, off the Capes of Vir- 
ginia, with the British armed tender Edward. The Lexington 
nearly cut her antagonist to pieces, and captured her. This 
was the first of any vessel of war that was captured by a reg- 
ular American cruiser, and Barry was g-reeted with unstinted 
praise. 

In May, John Paul Jones, having been made captain, was 
placed in command of the sloop Providence, 12 guns. He 
cruised between Boston and the Delaware, and sometimes as 
far south as the Bermudas. He was sometimes chased by 
larger British vessels, but always escaped. Finally he sailed 
far to the eastward, and in the waters near Canso he captured 
twelve- fishing-vessels. With fifteen prizes he sailed into New- 
port harbor, and was received with joy. 

In the mean time Captains Whipple and Biddle, with each 
a small vessel {Columbus and Andrea Doria), were making 
successful cruises off the coasts of New England and Nova 
Scotia. It is said the prizes of the Doria, Biddle's vessel, were 
so numerous that when he arrived in the Delaware she bore 
only five of her original crew, the remainder being distributed 
among the captured vessels to manage them. Biddle, wli^ 
had been on the sea since he was fourteen years of age (he 
was then twenty-six), and had served with the afterward great 
Nelson as a shipmate, was rewarded with the gift of the com- 
mand of the frigate Randolph, of 32 guns. 



NEW ENGLAND PEIVATEERS. 19 

At this time New England privateers were quite as active 
and successful as were the Continental vessels, for patriotism 
and self-interest sometimes go honorably hand in hand in 
achieving good results. The New Englanders were as human 
as the rest of the colonists, and were not averse, while serving 
their country, to putting money in their purses. Between the 
flight of the British from Boston at the middle of March 
(1776) and the ensuing midsummer they captured no less 
than thirty English vessels filled with army supplies. 

Among the privateers a little Connecticut vessel of fourteen 
guns, named Defence^ was the most active. She took prize af- 
ter prize ; and on a starry night in June, she, with an armed 
schooner and three other privateers, fought and conquered two 
British transports, near Boston, laden with two hundred sol- 
diers and a large quantity of stores. By midsummer, 1776, 
American vessels had captured more than five hundred British 
soldiers. 

The gallant Jones, after resting on his laurels for awhile, was 
put in command of the Alfred^ of 24 guns. That was in No- 
vember, 1776. She sailed for Nova Scotia, accompanied by 
the Providence. When a few days out, Jones captured a Bi-it- 
ish transport heavily laden with supplies for Burgoyne's army 
in Canada. This valuable prize was taken to Boston, closely 
pursued by a British armed ship, and was warmly welcomed. 

At that time only one or two of the thirteen Continental 
vessels ordered by Congress had been completed, and several 
of them, as we shall see hereafter, never got to sea. About a 
dozen merchant- vessels, which Congress had purchased and 
changed into warriors, were then afloat and active, the largest 
of which was the Alfred. 

Among the most successful cruisers in the summer of 1776 
was the Eeprisal, 16 guns. Captain Wickes. She was sent 
toward the West Indies. Near the island of Martinique she 
fought and repulsed a British schooner of equal rank, took 



20 STOEY OF THE UNITED STATES NAVY. 

several prizes, and, returning to the Delaware, soon afterward 
sailed from Philadelphia to France, to carry thither Dr. Frank- 
lin, who was sent to the French court as a representative of 
the American Congress and people. After landing Franklin, 
the Reprisal captured several prizes in the Bay of Biscay. 
These were sold, and the money was used by the American 
commissioners in France in purchasing and fitting out other 
armed vessels in French ports. 

With his own little craft and two others. Captain AVickes 
sailed from France and entirely around Ireland, sweeping the 
Irish Channel its whole length, and destroying a large number 
of merchant-vessels. AVickes's cruisers having been fitted out 
in French ports, the French government was compelled to 
either openly acknowledge or disclaim its friendship for the 
rebellious colonies. It chose to do the latter, and the cruisers 
were ordered to leave the French coast. Eeturning homeward, 
the Reprisal was wrecked on the coast of Newfoundland, and 
Captain Wickes and all his crew, excepting the cook, perished. 

Dr. Franklin carried with him to France a number of blank 
commissions for army and navy officers, which were signed by 
John Hancock, President of Congress. These Franklin and 
the other commissioners filled and signed as occasion required, 
and commanders of cruisers sailed under their authority from 
French ports. This embarrassed the French government, for 
it wished to avoid an open quarrel with Great Britain at that 
time, and desired, also, to befriend the Americans. 

Under one of these commissions, Captain Conyngham, a 
brave seaman, sailed from Dunkirk (in the north of France) in 
the brig Surprise, at the beginning of May, 1777. In the 
course of a few days he captured a British brig and the pack- 
et-ship Prince of Oranfje, and returned with them to Dunkirk. 
The English ambassador at Paris strongly remonstrated. To 
appease him, the French government imprisoned the captain 
and crew of the Surprise ; but soon afterward not only released 



SUCCESS OF THE " KEVENGE. ' 23 

them, but allowed them to fit out another cruiser called the 
Revenge. In this vessel Conyngham sailed a day or two be- 
fore the arrival of two British vessels that were sent to convey 
him and his men to England to be tried for piracy. 

The temper of the British government and people had been 
made irascible at that time by the alarming blows which 
American cruisers were inflicting upon their dearest interest, 
commerce. They regarded the revolted Americans as rebels, 
without any lawful government that might give commissions 
to privateers, and consequently these sea-rovers were held to 
be pirates — sea-robbers. Had Conyngham or any Ameri- 
can privateersman been caught just at that time, he would 
have been hanged. 

The Revenge scared the British so by her depredations that 
for a time they were at their wit's end. She made many 
prizes of merchantmen, and put large sums of money into the 
hands of the American commissioners for public use. Great 
alarm prevailed in all British seaports. Insurance on cargoes 
rose to twenty-five per centum ; and so reluctant were British 
merchants to ship goods in English bottoms, that forty French 
vessels were at one time together in the Thames taking in 
cargoes. 

The Revenge sought in vain for the British transports that 
were conveying hired German troops across the Atlantic to 
fight the Americans. It is said that the bold Conyngham, 
after a storm, disguised his ship, took her into a small Eng- 
lish port, and refitted her without her character being suspect- 
ed. He also obtained supplies in an Irish port. 

In the fall of 1776, Lake Champlain, in northern New York, 
became the theatre of stirring naval operations. The British 
in the spring had prepared to invade the Champlain and Hud- 
son valleys to effect a separation between New England and 
the rest of the Union, by holding military possession of these 
valleys. Look on a map and you will see how complete would 



24 



STOKY OF THE UNITED STATES NAVY. 



Lave been the separation by such an occupation. To meet 
this danger, the Americans, holding Ticonderoga and Crown 
Point, on the lake, constructed a small squadron at its upper 
end. By the middle of August a sloop, three schooners, and 

five gondolas had gather- 
ed at Crown Point, where 
they were armed and 
manned ; and Benedict 
Arnold, who knew more 
about naval affairs than 
any one else there, was 
phiced in command of 
them. With this little 
squadron he sailed down 
the lake to its foot, to 
make observations. 

Meanwhile the British, 
hearing of what was going 
on above, had hastily built 
a little navy on the Sorel, 
the outlet of Lake Champlain, and now had afloat a large 
flat-bottomed boat carrying heavy guns, called The Thunderer, 
and twenty-four gun-boats, each bearing a carriage-gun, and all 
well manned. 

After much delay, these hostile vessels came to blows to- 
ward the middle of October. The American flotilla was then 
lying between Valcour's Island and the western shore of the 
lake. The Congress, galley, was Arnold's flag- ship. There 
the American flotilla was attacked by the British squadron, 
and a very severe contest ensued, which was ended by the 
gloom of a very dark night. The American schooner Royal 
Savage had been lost in the action ; the rest of the flotilla, 
eluding the British in the darkness, fled up the lake, chased 
the next morning by their foes. All that day and the follow- 




BKNF.DICT AllNOI.D. 



riEST COURTESY PAID TO THE AMERICAN FLAG. 25 

inof nio-lit the excitino; race continued. The Americans were 
overtaken early the next morning (October 13th, 1776). Ar- 
nold was upon the Congress, g'^^ley, and fought until she was 
nearly a wreck, when that vessel and four others were run into 
a creek and burnt, the remnants of the crews escaping and 
making their way to Crown Point. 

Had Benedict Arnold perished at that time, his memory 
would have been cherished by the Americans as one of the 
noblest champions of liberty. Alas ! he lived to do many 
other patriotic deeds, and then, by an act of foul treason that 
contemplated the ruin of the cause he had espoused, he made 
his countrymen think of him only with scorn and hot indig- 
nation. 

The Andrea Boria, which had been so successful on the 
New England coast, finished her career on the Delaware in 
1777, where she was burnt to prevent her falling into the 
hands of the British. Captain Robinson, in the Sachem, 10 
guns, had captured an English privateer in July, 1776, for 
which act he was placed in command of the Doria, and sailed 
for St. Eustatia, where her salute was returned by the Dutch 
governor, the first courtesy of the kind ever paid to an Ameri- 
can flag. For this indiscretion the magistrate was removed 
from oflice by his government, to avoid giving offence to the 
English. On leaving that island, the Doria fell in with and 
captured the Race-horse, 12 guns, after a sharp fight of two 
hours. A large portion of the officers and crew of the Race- 
horse were either killed or wounded. The Doria reached 
Philadelphia with her prize. This was her last cruise before 
her destruction. 

In October following, the privateer Ranger, 18 guns, Cap- 
tain Hudson, convoying some American merchant-vessels in 
the West Indies, had a contest with a British brig which had 
been fitted out by the authorities of the island of Jamaica, and 
after a struggle of about two hours the men of the Ranger 

2* 



26 STORY OF THE UNITED .STxVTES NAVY. 

boarded the brig, and conquered her company in a hand-to- 
hand fight on her deck. When the Ranger returned to tlie 
United States after this victory, she was purchased for the 
Continental navy. 

With this action in American waters and others in Europe- 
an waters, ah-eady mentioned, marine warfare between the hos- 
tile parties closed for the year \11Q with honor to the Ameri- 
cans. During that year three hundred and forty British ves- 
sels had fallen into the hands of the latter, of which number 
forty-five had been recaptured, eighteen had been released, and 
four had been burnt. American vessels had not escaped dis- 
aster, by any means. The fast- sailing English frigates had 
captured many privateersmen ; and from time to time many 
American merchantmen had become British prizes. The war 
on the ocean had become destructive to both parties. 

The struggling Americans, both amazed and delighted by 
the results of their own valor, were very exultant, and they 
sometimes chanted their own praises in extravagant lines. 
One of them, in a song of nine verses, made Old Neptune, the 
god of the ocean, say : 

" A Congress ! sure they're brother gods, 
Who have such heroes at their nods 

To govern earth and sea : 
I yield my trident and my crown, 
A tribute due to such renown ; 

These crods shall rule for me." 



CAPTAIN BIDDLE KE WARDED. 27 



CHAPTER III. 

At the dawn of 1777 the spirits of the Americans were 
greatly elevated by their land victories at Trenton and Prince- 
ton. Recruits were rapidly filling up the shattered ranks of 
the army, and the Congress, which had fled in affright and de- 
spondency to Baltimore, began to be more hopeful. The rec- 
ord of their sea victories were also inspiriting to the Americans. 
Of the thirteen vessels ordered by Congress, only two (the Han- 
cock, built in Boston, and the Randoli^, constructed in Phil- 
adelphia) had got to sea; but purchased merchantmen, changed 
into cruisers and privateers, were very active and successful. 

We have seen that the Congress rewarded Captain Biddle 
for his deeds by giving him the command of the Randoljyh, 
32 guns. She sailed on her first cruise early in 1777. Going 
southward from the Delaware, Biddle ran into Charleston har- 
bor, where he remained a few days. Soon after going out he 
fell in with and Captured four " Jamaica men" (as vessels from 
the English island of Jamaica were called), one of which was 
armed with twenty cannons. With his prizes he returned to 
Charleston. There he was blockaded many months by a supe- 
rior British force. The Charleston people finally added four 
small vessels of their owr to Biddle's command, and with 
this little squadron he sailed out in quest of the British ships 
which had been cruising off that port. 

For a long time nothing was heard of the Randolph. Finally 
tidings came from the British that, while she was cruising to 
the eastward of Barbadoes, on the 7th of March, 1778, she was 
attacked late in the evening by the British man-of-war Yar^ 



28 



STORY OF THE U:NITED STATES NAVY. 




NICHOLAS BIDDLE. 



mouthy 64 guns, and after a sharp action for twenty minutes, in 
which the sails and rigging of the British vessel were very 
much cut up, Biddle's ship had been blown up. These sad 

tidings were too true. The 
Randolph and most of her 
company were lost. The 
combatants had been so near 
each other in the fight, that 
fragments of the destroyed 
vessel, when her magazine 
exploded, struck the Yar- 
mouth. iVmong other things 
an American flag, rolled up 
and not even singed, was 
blown in upon the forecastle 
of the British vessel. Five 
days afterward the Yar- 
mouth picked up four men 
of the Randolph floating on a piece of the wreck. Biddle and 
all of his men had perished excepting these. 

Not long after Biddle had sailed from the Delaware, the 
United States brig Cahot, 16 guns, Captain Olney, was chased 
ashore on the coast of Nova Scotia and captured. Her crew 
fled to the w^oods, and afterward, seizing a British schooner, 
made their way to Boston. That was in March, 1 777. In 
April the TnimbuU, 28 guns, built in Connecticut — Captain 
Saltonstall — captured two British transports with valuable stores 
on board. It was soon after this affair that the Hancock was 
captured by tli^ British cruiser Rainbow. 

The occupation of Philadelphia, early in the autumn of 1777, 
by the British army materially changed the naval arrangements 
of the country. Until then, the Delaware had been a safe 
place of retreat for American vessels. On its banks ships had 
been constructed ; and many public and private armed vessels 



"the battle of the kegs." 29 

had been jEitted out at Philadelphia, tlien the largest town in 
the United States. The British fleet, under Lord Howe, now 
occupied the river, while the army of his brother, Sir William, 
lay around Philadelphia. 

It was at this time that an amusing event occurred, which 
was celebrated in verse by Francis Hopkinson, one of the sign- 
ers of the Declaration of Independence, in an epic of twenty- 
two stanzas, entitled " The Battle of the Kegs." The Americans 
at Bordentown, on the Delaware, above Philadelphia, constructed 
some torpedoes, and sent them down the river in kegs to de- 
stroy the British shipping. They were so arranged that when 
they should strike against any object with the velocity which 
the tide would give them, they would explode by percussion. 
One of these struck some object in the river and exploded. 
The British, remembering Bushnell's Marine Turtle in New 
York harbor (see Chapter XXV.), were greatly alarmed, and 
every keg or other suspicious object seen floating in the Del- 
aware was fired upon. Hopkinson thus ludicrously described 
the terror of the British : 

" The soldier flew, the sailor too, 
And, scared almost to death, sir, 
Wore out their shoes to spread the news. 
And ran till out of breath, sir. 

" Now up and down, throughout the town, 
Most frantic scenes were acted ; 
And some ran here, and others there. 
Like men almost distracted. 

" Some fire cried, which some denied, 
But said the others had quaked, 
And girls and boys with hideous noise 
Kan through the streets half-naked. 



■ Such feats did they perform that day 
Against these wicked kegs, sir, 

That, years to come, if they get home. 

They'll make their boasts and brags, sir." 



30 STORY OF THE UNITED STATES NAVY. 

Several American vessels, not in a condition to get to sea 
when Howe entered the Delaware, sought safety higher up the 
river. It was then that the Andrea Doria (see page 24) was 
destroyed, to prevent her falling into the power of the British. 
The schooners Was}) and Hornet were also burnt for the 
same purpose. 

At about this time the frigate Raleigh, 32 guns, which had 
been built at Portsmouth, N. H., first went to sea under Cap- 
tain Thompson, in the company of the Alfred, Captain Hin- 
man. They were both short of men, and sailed directly for 
France to get military supplies. 

At the beginning of September the Raleigh and Alfred capt- 
ured the snow^ Nancg, which had been left by a merchant 
fleet of sixty sail, convoyed by the Druid, 20 guns, and three 
other armed vessels. From his prisoners Thompson learned 
the state of affairs, and immediately sought the convoy. He 
discovered it the next day at sunset, and, running in his guns 
and closing the ports, gave the Raleigh the appearance of an 
English merchant-vessel. Having obtained the British signals 
from his prize, he used them in calling the Alfred to him, and 
in giving orders. Then he prepared to run among the mer- 
chantmen and attack the Druid. 

The Alfred was too weak to carry sufficient sail for the pur- 
pose, and the Raleigh alone pressed into the fleet in the even- 
ing. Speaking first to one and then to another, as if one of 
their companions, she luffed up to the Druid, repeating the 
latter's signals, unsuspected. Obtaining a weatherly position, 
the Raleigh ran along-side the Druid, and when within pistol- 
shot distance she hauled up her courses, ran out her guns, set 
her ensigns, and commanded her antagonist to surrender. The 

^ A snow was a merchant -vessel, then much used, equipped with two 
masts, resembling the main and fore mast of a ship, and a third small mast 
abaft the main-mast, carrying a top-sail. 



EFFORTS OF THE COMMISSIONERS. 31 

Druid was confu.sed by this unexpected order, wlien the Ra- 
leigh, taking advantage of a favorable movement, poured in a 
broadside. It was feebly returned. In the course of twenty 
minutes the Raleigh fired twelve broadsides, and received only 
feeble responses. 

A squall had now come on, and when it cleared away the 
merchantmen were seen flying from the neighborhood of the 
combat in all directions. The other armed vessels approach- 
ing, the Raleigh ran to leeward and joined the Alfred. They 
kept near the fleet for several days, but finally abandoned it, 
and the two vessels continued their voyage to France. Several 
minor enterprises were successfully carried out after this, and 
the year 1*777 closed with a loss to the British of four hun- 
dred and sixty-seven merchantmen, notwithstanding they had 
seventy sail of war- vessels on the American coast. 

For some time the American commissioners in France had 
been trying to negotiate a treaty of alliance with the French 
government, by which the independence of the United States 
should be acknowledged, and open aid be given them in their 
struggle with Great Britain. The capture of Burgoyne's army 
by the unaided Americans, in the fall of 1777, gave such as- 
surance of success for the patriots, that on the 6th of February, 
1778, treaties of alliance, and of 
amity and commerce, were signed 
at Paris by tlie Count de Vergennes 
and Dr. Franklin, the represent- 
atives of France and the United 
States. Very speedily material aid 
was given by the former, when 
French ships of war appeared in 
American waters and among the 
West India Islands. 

This alliance gave great relief to 
the Americans, and infused new life into the Continental ar- 




OOUNT 7)E VEKGENNES. 



32 STOEY OF THE UNITED STATES NAVY. 

lilies. The Congress fitted out some frigates and smaller vessels. 
Among the former was the Alliance, 32 guns, built at Salisbury, 
Massachusetts, which became a favorite with the patriots. 

The American cruisers were now more active than ever. 
Before news of the treaty reached the United States, and even 
before it was signed, the Providence, Captain Rathburne, had 
sailed (January, 17*78) for the Bahama Islands, landed upon 
New Providence, seized the fort at Nassau, and taken posses- 
sion of the town and six vessels in the harbor. He had landed 
with only twenty-five men, and had not force enough to hold 
the fort; so he spiked the cannons, took a large quantity of 
ammunition and stores to his vessel, burnt two of his prizes, 
and departed without losing a man. 

The gallant Barry (see page 16) was in command of the 
Effingham, 28 guns, which had sought safety above Philadel- 
phia in the fall of 1777. Tired of inactivity, Barry ;fflanned 
an expedition down the stream. Manning four boats with 
armed men, he went down the river with the tide, dashed past 
the town, and attacked an armed schooner of ten guns, and four 
transports below Philadelphia. He boarded and captured the 
schooner, and the transports fell into his hands. Two British 
cruisers approaching soon afterward, Barry burnt his prizes 
iind escaped by land, without the loss of a man. 

Early in 1778 Captain Thompson, with the Raleigh, and 
Alfred, Captain Hinman,' laden with military stores, sailed 
from L'Orient, France, taking the southern route for Amer- 
ica. On the 9th of March they were chased by the British 
ships Ariadne and Ceres, and the Alfred was captured after a 
sharp conflict. Thompson did not assist Hinman, for which 
remissness he was dismissed from the service. 

^ Hiunian was one of the bravest of the naval heroes of the Revohition. 
His remams rest under a beautiful monument of marble, nineteen feet in 
height, at Stonington, Connecticut. 



EXPLOITS OF PAUL JONES. 



33 




The Virginia^ 28 gans, built at Annapolis, was one of the 
thirteen frigates ordered by Congress. Various causes prevent- 
ed her getting to sea until the spring of 
1*7*78, when she was placed in command of 
Captain James Nicholson, the senior of the 
original list of ofhcers of that rank. At 
the close of March she sailed down Chesa- 
peake Bay. During the first night out her 
unskilful pilot lay her across a sand-bar, 
where she fell into the power of two Brit- 
ish armed vessels the next morning. Per- 
ceiving his peril, Nicholson, with his men, 
had escaped ashore, with his papers, before 
the captors reached his vessel. 

Now John Paul Jones first appeared in 
European waters, but in a vessel too inferior 
for such an able and zealous commander. 
It was in April, 1778, and his vessel was the 
Ranger, 18 guns. But he sailed boldly into the Irish Channel, 
made several important prizes, and undertook to capture the 
sloop-of-war Drake, 18 guns, lying in the harbor of Carrickfer- 
gus, Ireland. Failing in this, Jones sailed to the English coast, 
entered the port of Whitehaven, seized the fort there, spiked the 
cannons, and setting fire to a ship in the midst of a hundred 
other vessels, departed as suddenly as he appeared. The flames 
were extinguished, and the shipping was saved. This exploit, 
associated in the minds of the people with piracy and destruc- 
tion, spread terror along the English coast, and produced a pro- 
found sensation throughout the kingdom. 

Jones, emboldened by this success, proceeded to the coast 
of Scotland, his native country, to attempt the capture of the 
Earl of Selkirk, so as to have a notable prisoner to exchange. 
The earl had a seat on St. Mary's Isle, near the point where 
the Dee enters the Channel. Jones was familiar with the lo- 



lONUMENT TO KINMAN. 



34 STORY OF TOE UNITED STATES NAVY. 

cality, having spent a portion of his boyhood there while his 
father was the earl's gardener. He did not go in person to 
seize the earl, for the better feelings of his nature restrained 
him. The earl and his good wife had been kind friends of 
Jones in his boyhood, and his conscience rebelled against the 
act as rank ingratitude. The claims of his adopted country 
pleaded against the suggestions of conscience, and he sent some 
of his most trusted followers, with instructions to commit no 
depredations, but only to seize the person of his early friend. 

The earl was absent, and the men, greedy for plunder, ex- 
ceeded their instructions, and carried off from the mansion sil- 
ver plate of the value of five hundred dollars. Jones was mor- 
tified ; and when the booty was sold at Brest, he purchased 
the plate and sent it back to Lady Selkirk, with a letter express- 
ing his regret at the circumstance. 

A little later Jones appeared off Carrickfergus again, when 
the Drake went out to attack the Ranger. After fighting a lit- 
tle more than an hour, the Drake, dreadfully shattered, and with 
forty of her crew killed or wounded, struck her colors and sur- 
rendered. With his prize Jones sailed around Ireland, made 
several other prizes, and reached the harbor of Brest early in 
May. 

A French fieet, commanded by the Count D'Estaing, ap- 
peared off the coast of Virginia in July, 1778. Admiral Howe's 
British fleet had already left the Delaware, and taken position 
in Raritan Bay. The British army had left Philadelphia and 
gone to New York. With D'Estaing came M. Gerard, the first 
French minister sent to the United States. This fleet of heavy 
war-ships gave confidence to American cruisers, and under the 
shadow of its power they became bolder and more active, 
while the British naval commanders became more cautious and 
circumspect. 

The French fleet disappointed the Americans. Their hopes 
of great aid from its power were never realized. D'Estaing 



d'estaing's conduct. 



35 



did not disturb Howe's fleet in Raritan Bay. He fought him 
off Rhode Island in a heavy storm, and then abandoned the 
land troops there at a moment when help was most needed 
and expected, causing- disaster to the American army. 

So it was at the siege of Savannah. Just as victory over 
the British, who were intrenched there, was assured, but not 
quite achieved, he ordered 
all his men and cannons on 
shore eno-ao-ed in the sieo;e 
to be immediately trans- 
ferred to his vessels, when 
he sailed away to the 
West Indies, leaving Gen- 
eral Lincoln, the American 
commander, no alternative 
but to raise the siege and 
retreat in deep mortifica- 
tion. In both instances 
the Americans were dis- 
appointed and disgusted; 
for the French command- 
er seemed intent upon se- 
curing the safety of his vessels from the least harm, let the con- 
sequence to the American cause be what it might. Indeed, 
there is reason to suspect that the French government at that 
time was willing to have the war prolonged. The conduct of 
De Grasse in 1781 was more commendable. With his power- 
ful French fleet he gave able assistance to the allied French and 
American armies at the siege of Yorktown, until the victory 
was made complete. 

Again Captain Barry appeared conspicuous on the sea. Late 
in September, 1778, he sailed from Boston in command of the 
Raleigh^ 32 guns, with a brig and sloop under convoy. On 
the same day two British vessels {Experiment^ 50 guns, and 




COUNT B'ESTAING. 



36 



STORY OF THE UNITED STATES NAVY. 



Unicorn, 28 guns) gave chase. It was kept up for almost 
three days, when, toward the evening of September 27th, the 
Raleigh and the Unicorn began a battle that lasted seven hours. 
Finding the larger vessel closing in upon him, and unable to 
escape by flight, Barry determined to run the Raleigh ashore 
and burn her. He steered for an island on the Massachusetts 
coast, was pursued, and kept up a running fight all the way. 
He had landed a part of his crew, when a treacherous petty 
officer surrendered the ship to the pursuer. Barry was highly 
commended for his gallantry in this affair. 

We must not forget to mention here a brave exploit of Ma- 
jor Silas Talbot, of Rhode Island, in the fall of 1778. He had 
greatly assisted Sullivan in the transportation of his troops from 




CAPTAIN SILAS TALBOT. 



the main-land to Rhode Island proper. The British still held 
possession there. In the channel between the eastern side of 
the island and the main they had anchored a vessel as a float- 
ing battery, bearing twenty-two guns, and called the Pigot. On 



A EEVOLT FRUSTllATED. ^ 3/ 

October lOtli Talbot, in a small sloop (the Haivk) armed with 
three light cannons, and manned by sixty volunteers, proceeded 
to attack the Pigot. The volunteers boarded and captured her. 
For this exploit Congress commissioned Talbot a lieutenant- 
colonel. He seems to have been equally useful on land and 
water. Already Congress had thanked him for skilful opera- 
tions with a fire-ship against British war- vessels near New York. 
With this exploit of Talbot, and the operations of the Raleigh, 
the chief combats of the American war-vessels closed for 17*78. 

An attempt to perpetrate a terrible crime on board an Amer- 
ican ship was made early in 1779. The frigate Alliance had 
been placed under the command of Captain Landais, a French- 
man, who w\as so unpopular that it was difficult to get Ameri- 
cans to serve under him. The crew of an English vessel (the 
Some7'set) wrecked on the coast of Massachusetts were im- 
pressed into service under Landais. It was a perilous act; 
and while the Alliance was on a voyage to France, with Lafay- 
ette as a passenger, these English seamen, seventy-five in num- 
ber, planned a revolt, the details of which contemplated the 
destruction of the officers of the vessel, the American sailors, 
and the passengers. An American seaman, who had lived long 
in Ireland, and was mistaken by them for an Irishman, pretend- 
ed to favor their plan. He procured all their secrets, and re- 
vealed them to Captain Landais and Lafayette. 

Preparations were made to meet the emergency. At the 
moment when the plot was to be put into execution the con- 
spirators found themselves prisoners in the hands of their in- 
tended victims, who were all armed. Thirty or forty of the 
mutineers were put in irons, taken to Brest, and mercifully ex- 
changed as prisoners of war. The conspirators, who hated 
Landais, contemplated putting him, heavily ironed, into an 
open boat, without food, and to set him adrift on the ocean. 
No other attempt at a general revolt was ever made on board 
an American ship-of-war. 



38 STORY OF THE UNITED STATES NAVY. 

Sometimes tliere were sliarp and decisive battles in mid- 
ocean between privateers, of which httle or no accounts found 
their way into the newspapers. Such was the combat between 
the Massachusetts privateer Hampden^ of twenty-two guns, and 
an Eno'lish Indiaman. The hitter was diso-uised until within 
pistol-shot distance from the Hampden, when she suddenly 
opened fire. She had thirteen guns on each side. A battle 
lasting three hours resulted in the severely disabling of both 
vessels, but no capture. The name of the Indiaman is un- 
known. This occurred early in 1779. 

A little later Captain J. B. Hopkins, in command of a small 
squadron, consisting of the frigate Warren, 32 guns; Queen of 
France, 28; and Ranger, 18, sailed from Boston. He soon af- 
terward captured a privateer, and learned that a number of 
transports, with supplies for the British army in the South, 
were on their way to Savannah. Hopkins crowded sail, and 
overtook the fleet off Cape Henry, on the coast of Virginia. 
He captured seven of the vessels. A few days later his squad- 
ron captured three brigs laden with stores for the same desti- 
nation. On board of these vessels were twenty-three British 
officers on their way to Georgia, who were made prisoners. 

Early in July the Queen of France and the Ranger were 
under the command of Captain Whipple, whose flag-ship was 
the Providence, 28 guns. They sailed on a cruise which, in a 
pecuniary point of view, was the most successful of the war. 
The Queen of France was commanded by Captain Rathburne. 
They fell in with a large fleet of merchantmen convoyed by 
an English ship-of-the-line, and captured many of them. The 
estimated value of eight of the vessels taken into Boston was 
over $1,000,000. 

Early in the autumn of 1779 John Paul Jones became the 
hero of brilliant exploits in European waters. Dr. Franklin 
was then the sole American ambassador at the French court, 
and was a great favorite among the French people. The king 



FEANKLIN AND " BONHOMME RICHARD." 39 

disliked him because he was such a sturdy republican ; but the 
queen and the court generally, greatly admired him for his 
wisdom and simple virtues. In his earlier writings, he often 
uttered original or borrowed wise sayings, in this form : 

'"A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush,' as poor 
Richard says." 




DR. FRANKLIN. 



By these sayings in this form he came to be known, at home 
and abroad, as "Poor Richard;" and when, in the summer of 
1779, the French government and the American ambassador 
jointly fitted out an expedition to be commanded by Jones, 
the flag-ship was named Bonhomme Richard, or " Good Man 
Richard." She was the Duras, an old Indiaman which had 
been purchased. They also bought the Pallas (a merchant- 
man), the Cerf, and the Vengeance. The Cerf was a fine large 
cutter, and the Vengeance was a small brig. To these Dr. 
Franklin added the Alliance, the only American-built vessel in 
the little squadron. 

The commissions for the officers were all issued by Dr. 
Franklin, and the ships were to display none but American col- 
ors. Indeed, they were to be considered American ships during 



40 STORY OF THE UNITEQ STATES NAVY. 

this particular service. The commissions of all the officers 
were given for a limited period. The French government and 
the American minister had a joint and equal right to instruct 
the commanders of the squadrons. 

The composition of the crew of the Bonkomme Richard 
gave forebodings of trouble. They numbered three hundred 
and seventy-five, and consisted of a medley of representatives 
of almost every nation in Europe, and even of Malays. A 
very few Americans were found to fill the stations of sea-offi- 
cers on the quarter-deck and forward. To keep this strange 
crew in order, one hundred and thirty soldiers were put on 
board. These, recruited at random, were not much less mixed 
in nationality than were the crew. 

M. Le Ray Chaumont, a wealthy banker, had contributed 
much money toward fitting out the expedition, and it is be- 
lieved that he was to share in any profits that might accrue. 
Just before the expedition was to sail, he presented an agree- 
ment for the signatures of all the commanders, which made the 
affair a sort of partnership. To this agreement Jones attributed 
much of the disobedience among his captains, of which he bit- 
terly complained afterward. It weakened his authority ; and 
Captain Landais, in particular, who was jealous of Jones, took 
advantage of the situation. His appointment to the command 
of the Alliance was unfortunate, as we shall observe presently. 



PAUL JONES S EXPEDITION. 41 



CHAPTER IV. 

The destination of Commodore Jones's squadron was the 
English Channel and the waters of the German Ocean off the 
coasts of Great Britain. After much delay, and the fortunate 
accession to the squadron of over one hundred exchanged Amer- 
ican seamen, the expedition left the harbor of L'Orient, France, 
on the 14th of August, 1779. Already Captain Landais (who 
had been dismissed from the French navy on account of his 
bad temper) had shown insubordination, and even a mutinous 
spirit, which had foreboded mischief. 

The vessels encountered severe storms, and took prizes here 
and there. Sailing along the eastern coast of Scotland, the 
squadron excited great alarm, and the inhabitants along the 
shores buried their plate, to secure it from seizure by the dreaded 
sea-rover, whose former visit had inspired them with much fear. 
He entered the Frith of Forth, when the wildest alarm spread 
along its shores, for Jones was regarded as a pirate as cruel as 
any old Scandinavian sea-king. When the Bonhomme Richard 
was seen bearing directly toward Kirkcaldy, the people be- 
lieved that he was coming to plunder and destroy. At their 
earnest solicitation, the minister of the town, who was an ec- 
centric and not always a very reverential man, led his flock to 
the beach, and, kneeling down, thus prayed for deliverance 
from the approaching cruiser : 

" Now, dear Lord, don't you think it a shame for you to 
send the vile pirate to rob our folk of Kirkcaldy, for you 
know they're poor enough already, and have nothing to spare. 
The way the wind blows he'll be here in a jiffy, and who knows 

3' 



42 



STORY OF THE UNITED STATES NAVY. 



what lie may do ? He's not too good for any- 
thing. Mucli is the mischief he has done al- 
ready. He'll burn their houses, take their 
'^JiA very clothes, and strip them to their 
A^ \ \\\ shirts, and, woe's me ! who knows but 
the bloody villain may take their 
lives ! The poor women are most 
frightened out o' their wits, 
~ and the children following 
after them. I cannot 
think it ! I cannot think 
it ! I have been 
long a faith- 
ful servant 
to you, Lord ; 
but if you 
don't turn the 
wind about 
and blow the 
scoundrel out 
o' our gate, 
I'll not stir a 
foot, but will 
just sit here 
till the tide 




JOHN PAtIL JONES. 



THE BALTIC FLEET IN DANGER. 43 

comes. vSo take your will of it." While the minister was 
praying the white caps began to dot the Frith. A heavy gale 
swept over the waters, and Jones was compelled to abandon his 
enterprise and put to sea. The people had faith thereafter that 
the prayers of their good minister would save them from any 
calamity. 

By the middle of September, Jones had captured thirteen 
vessels — a successful work for one month. On the 23d, the 
whole squadron, excepting the Cerf and two privateers, were 
in sight of each other a few leagues north of the mouth of the 
Humber. The day was fine, and a gentle wind was blowing 
from the south-west. To windward a brig was lying to, and 
Jones manned a pilot-boat and sent her in chase of the vessel. 
The boat had just left the Bonliomme Richard when Jones saw 
a fleet of about forty merchantmen stretcliing out on a bow- 
line from behind Flamborough Head. It was the Baltic fleet, 
convoyed by the Sercqns, of forty guns. Captain Pearson, and 
the Countess of Scarborough, of twenty-two guns. Captain Pier- 
cy. Excitement ran through the little squadron when the 
pilot-boat was recalled and the commodore signalled for a gen- 
eral chase, and crossed the royal yards on board the Richard. 

These signs of hostility alarmed the nearest English vessels, 
which hurriedly tacked together, fired alarm-guns, let fly their 
top-gallant sheets, and made other signals of danger. At the 
same time, the English armed vessels manoeuvred with an evi- 
dent determination to defend the merchantmen. 

Jones's orders were disobeyed by Landais, who played the 
double part of mutineer and coward. He had told the com- 
mander of the Pallas, on passing her, that, in case the larger 
British vessel proved to be a fifty-gun ship, the squadron had 
nothing to do but to fly, and so soon as he discovered the 
strength of the English ships, he sought safety by ordering the 
Alliance to a distance. 

Night closed upon the scene while the Richard and Pallas, 



44 STOKY OF THE UNITED STATES NAVY. 

and the Serapis and Scarborough were manceuvring for the 
weather -gage. Jones could discover the movements of ves- 
sels only through his night-glass, but he kept moving steadily 
on toward the larger of his two antagonists, while the Pallas 
fell in the rear. At a little past seven o'clock in the even- 
ing, the Richard came within musket-range of the Serapis, and 
then began one of the most desperate sea-fights recorded on 
the pages of history. 

Jones knew the superiority of the Serapis in weight of met- 
al, and tried to lay his vessel athwart her hawse. In making 
the attempt, the bowsprit of the Serapis ran between the poop 
and the mizzen-mast of the Richard. Jones instantly lashed 
the two ships together, and the wind, which was freshening, 
brought them so close, fore and aft, that the muzzles of their 
respective cannons touched the sides of each vessel. In this 
position the action continued for an hour and a half, each party 
fighting with desperation. Jones had no reason to complain 
of his motley crew. They all did well ; and the commodore 
was nobly seconded by his first lieutenant, Richard Dale, then 
only twenty-two years of age. 

The battle grew hotter and hotter; men — brave men on 
both sides — fought like giants, hand-to-hand with pike, pistol, 
and cutlass. At about the beginning of the action there was 
a brief lull in the firing of the Richard. 

"Have you struck your colors?" shouted Captain Pearson. 

" I have not yet begun to fight !" Jones promptly answered. 

Events soon confirmed the truth and significance of these 
Avords. From the deck of the Richard hand-grenades were 
showered upon the people of the Serajns, and combustibles 
were thrown through the npper parts of the English ship by 
men in the Richard'^s forecastle. 

Meanwhile the heavy guns of the combatants Avere doing- 
awful work below. Those of the Serapis were tearing the 
Richard to pieces, almost Avithout resistance from her batteries. 



SEEAPIS. ' 45 

Only three nine -pounders kept np tlie cannonade from the 
Richard; but deadly bullets from her round-top, and more 
destructive grenades from her deck, with fierce combustibles 
scattered everywhere upon her antagonist, were doing fearful 
execution. At one time the Serapis was on fire in a dozen 
places. At half -past nine o'clock, just as the moon arose in a 
cloudless sky, but thickly obscured by the smoke of battle, 
some cartridges on the Serapis were set on fire, and all the 
officers and men abaft the main -mast were destroyed by 
their explosion. Three times both ships were on fire, and their 
destruction appeared inevitable. The scene was one of appall- 
ing grandeur. 

While the conflict was at its height, the Alliance, Captain 
Landais, approached, and, sailing around the struggling com- 
batants, delivered several broadsides in such a way as to dam- 
age both vessels equally. By one of them the Richard had 
eleven men killed, and an officer mortally wounded. The opin- 
ion generally prevailed afterward that Landais fired into the 
Richard for the purpose of killing Jones, and compelling his 
vessel to surrender, in order that he (Landais) might retake her, 
together with the Serapis, and get all the honor of the victory. 

At the beginning of the conflict. Captain Pearson had nailed 
his flag to the mast of the Serapis. Perceiving that he could 
no longer prolong the fight, he struck his colors with his own 
hand, and gave up the vessel to Lieutenant Dale, who was the 
first to board her. Ten minutes later, the Countess of Scar- 
borough, which had been fighting with the Pallas, Captain 
Cotineau, also surrendered. The Richard was a complete 
wreck, and was fast sinking. Her sick and wounded were 
transferred to the Serapis; and sixteen hours afterward she 
went down in the deep waters of Bridlington Bay. Jones, 
with the remainder of his squadron and his prizes, sailed for 
Holland, and anchored in the Texel on the 3d of October. 
The loss of life had been very heavy on both sides. 



46 STORY OF THE UNITED. STATES NAVY. 

When Captain Pearson deliveFed liis sword to Commodore 
Jones, the gallant and haughty Englishman said : 

"I cannot, sir, but feel much mortification at the idea of 
surrendering my sword to a man who has fought me with a 
rope round his neck." 

Jones received his sword, and at once returned it, saying, 

" You have fought gallantly, sir, and I hope your king will 
give you a better ship." 

Pearson was afterward knighted by his sovereign. On hear- 
ing of it, Jones said, 

" He deserves it ; and if I fall in with him again Pll make 
a lord of him." 

The British ambassador at the Hague demanded of the 
government of Holland an order for the Serapis and Scarbor- 
ough to be delivered up ; also Jones and his men to be tried 
for piracy. Holland was friendly to the American cause 
(though secretly, for State reasons), and refused compliance ; 
and Jones was soon afterward made commander of the Al- 
liance. The fame of his great victory soon filled America 
and Europe, and he was laden with honors. The American 
Congress gave him public thanks and a gold medal. The 
King of France gave him a gold-mounted sword bearing upon 
its blade the words : " Louis XVI. rewarder of the valiant as- 
sertor of the freedom of the sea." He also made him a Knight 
of the Order of Merit. The Empress of Russia gave him the 
ribbon of St. Anne, and the King of Denmark awarded him 
a pension. No subsequent event ever dimmed his fame ; and 
he is known in history as " The Chevalier John Paul Jones." 
He sailed for America in December, 1780, and arrived at Phil- 
adelphia in February, 1781, after an absence of more than 
three years. He was appointed to the command of the Amer- 
ica, 74 guns, a vessel which Congress presented to the French 
monarch before she was ready for sea. 

I am sure you would like to know what befell the famous 



PAUL JONES HONORED. 47 

John Paul Jones after the old war for independence. I will 
tell you. He w^ent from America to Paris, as agent for prize- 




JONES'S MEDAL. 



money, where he was made mucli of by the king-, his court, 
and all the great folk, men and women. He had plenty of 



48 STORY OF THE UNITED STATES NAVY. 

money for awhile, ar I he took real pleasure in the enjoyment 
of his fame and wealth. While he was in Paris he was invit- 
ed into the Russian naval service by the Empress Catherine, 
and was made a rear-admiral. Disappointed in not being put 
in command of the fleet in the Baltic Sea, he fell out with the 
admiral (who was a prince), and his enemies telling falsehoods 
about him, he was permitted by the empress to retire from the 
service with a pension, which was never paid. He went back 
to Paris, where he became very poor, was neglected, and died 
thirteen years after his great victory, when he was only forty- 
five years old. Nobody knows where his body was buried. 

Massachusetts, ever foremost in patriotic actions, continued 
to assist the cause by fitting out active cruisers. One of four- 
teen guns was named the Hazard^ Captain Williams. She 
sailed from Boston late in May, 1779, and soon afterward had 
a sharp encounter with the Active^ 1 8 guns, a British cruiser 
supposed to have been the private property of the King of 
England. The combat lasted an hour and a half, when the 
Hazard won the victory. The Active lost nearly forty men ; 
the Hazard only eight. 

' Williams was now put in command of the Protector^ 20 guns. 
This was also a Massachusetts cruiser. In June she had a se- 
vere struggle with the Duff of equal force — a heavy English 
privateer. After they had fought an hour, the Duff was set 
on fire and blown up. Her antagonist saved about sixty of her 
men. On his return to Boston, Williams was sent on a disas- 
trous expedition to the Penobscot River. 

For that expedition, Massachusetts fitted out a land and naval 
force. The latter was commanded by Commodore Saltonstall, 
and consisted of several sloops-of-war, mounting from sixteen 
to twenty-eight guns each, seven armed brigs, and twenty-four 
transports, carrying about nine hundred land troops. The 
expedition met with disaster almost immediately after its ar- 
rival in the river, and the disappointed General Assembly of 



SERVICES OF TALBOT. 49 

Massachusetts censured Saltonstall for remissness in duty in 
not co-operating with the troops. At the same time they 
commended the military leader. Saltonstall had been com- 
pelled to burn several of his vessels, to prevent them falling 
into the hands of the enemy. Among the vessels destroyed 
was the Providence, which had gained such fame under Whip- 
ple, her first commander. 

Lieutenant-colonel Talbot appeared again as a naval hero early 
in 1779. At Providence, he armed his former prize (the Pigot) 
and a sloop, the Argo, of ten guns, to cruise off the New Eng- 
land coast. He made several prizes of importance, among 
them the Lively, 12 guns, and two privateers, which he carried 
into Boston. He captured the King George, a vessel specially 
detested by the New Englanders. This latter exploit produced 
great joy. He fought desperately with the Dragon four hours 
and a half, in August, and conquered her. This act won for 
him the commission from Congress of a naval captain. 

Talbot performed many gallant deeds in the autumn, and 
the fruits of his services during six months were the capture 
of three hundred prisoners, five valuable merchantmen, and six 
privateers. The next year, while in command of a privateer, 
he was captured, confined for months in a British prison-ship 
and the provost jail at New York, and was finally taken to 
England, where he was exchanged in December, 1781. 

We have come to the beginning of the year 1780, the 
gloomiest period of the old war for independence. The French 
naval force had disappointed the Americans; the promised 
French army had not arrived from France; and the British 
government, perceiving with alarm the growing strength of the 
American regular and irregular (privateers) navy, resolved not 
to exchange any more prisoners taken from the latter class of ves- 
sels. This had a depressing effect upon the nautical enterprise 
of the Americans, for very soon a large number of their best 
seamen were held prisoners of war. In view of this fact, and 

3* 



50 



STORY OF THE UNITED. STATES NAVY. 



the aid on the ocean provided by the French, Congress paid 
very little attention to its marine force. At the same time, 
the British Parliament authorized the ministry to employ 
80,000 men in the Royal Xavy. 

When the fleet of x\dmiral Arbuthnot entered Charleston 
harbor in the spring of 1780, Commodore Whipple was there 
with a small flotilla. Perceiving no chance for safety, he land- 
ed his great guns and destroyed his vessels — sinking some of 
them in the channel, to obstruct the passage of the British fleet. 
But the neo'lect of Congress and the overshadowing power 

of the British marine did not 
make American vessels inac- 
tive. In June, 1780, the 
Trumhull, 28 guns. Captain 
James Nicholson (the senior 
oflicer in the navy), fought 
the English privateer Watt 
for two hours and a half. The 
battle was a desperate one. 
' The vessels were not inore 
than a hundred yards apart, 
and poured broadsides into 
each other continually. The 
Trumbull was completely dis- 
abled, but her antagonist, equally hurt, withdrew, without at- 
tempting to capture her. 

In October, the United States sloop -of -war Saratoga^ 16 
guns. Captain Young, captured a British ship and two brigs. 
The Saratoga ran along-side of one of them (the Charming 
Molli/), when young Lieutenant Joshua Barney, then only twen- 
ty-one years of age, at the head of fifty men, boarded her and 
made prisoners of her numerous crew. The Saratoga soon 
afterward captured a few other vessels, all of which were re- 
taken by the Intrepid, 74 guns, while they were on their way 




(^)MM01)0 



BARNEY IN EUROPEAN WATERS. 51 

to the Delaware. It is supposed tlie Saratoga soon afterward 
foundered at sea, for she and her crew were never heard of 
again. Barney was made a prisoner, and so he was saved to 
do good services for his country in later years. 

Barney was now made captain, and at the close of 1780 he 
was appointed to the command of the Alliance. He sailed 
from Boston in P'ebruary, 1781, with Colonel John Laurens, who 




J08UUA BARNEY. 



went to France to seek money for the use of the Continental 
Congress. On his way he captured the British privateer Alert. 
After landing Laurens at L'Orient, Barney sailed on a cruise, 
the Alliance accompanied by the Marquis cle Lafayette of 
forty guns, which was bound to America with stores. These 
vessels parted company after the Alliance had captured a few 
prizes, and very soon the latter was attacked by two English 
vessels — a sloop of sixteen guns, and a brig of fourteen guns. 
In the severe action which occurred, Barney was wounded and 
carried below. The Alliance was about to strike her colors, 



52 STORY OF THE UNITED STATES NAVY. 

when a light breeze bent her sails and gave her an advantage. 
She immediately poured a broadside into each of her antago- 
nists, and wounded them so severely that they gave up the 
fight and surrendered. They were the Atlanta and Trepassy, 
the former manned by one hundred and thirty men and the 
latter by eighty. 

Misfortunes overtook some of the American vessels in the 
early summer of 1781. The Confederacy, Captain Harding, 
was captured by an English vessel convoying merchantmen to 
the West Indies ; and at about the same time the Trumbull, 
Captain James Nicholson, with a convoy of twenty-eight sail, 
was captured soon after leaving the Delaware by two British 
cruisers — the Iris (formerly the United States frigate Hancock, 
captured by i\\Q Rainbow^) and the sloop-of-war General Monk 
(formerly the American ship George Washington). The whole 
severe action was carried on by Nicholson with about forty 
men, for a large part of his crew were insubordinate English 
prisoners. In September the privateer Congress, 20 guns, 
captured the British sloop-of-war Savage, 16 guns, after a 
combat of one hour and a half. The battle occurred eastward 
of Charleston. The Savage was soon afterward recaptured 
by an English frigate. 

The war for independence was now drawing to a close. 
Cornwallis and his army had been captured by the allied Amer- 
ican and French forces at Yorktown, in Virginia; and early 
in 1782 the British Parliament and people began to show signs 
of weariness in the struggle. Yet the American armies, though 
hopeful of peace speedily, were vigilant, and prepared for a 
further struggle, if necessary ; and American naval vessels yet 
roamed the ocean in search of prey. 

Early in the year 1782 the Deane, 32 guns. Captain Samuel 
Nicholson, went on a successful cruise, bringing back many 

' See page 28. 



GENERAL MONK. ' 53 

prizes. Among them were three sloops-of-war, with an aggre- 
gate of forty-four cannons. Captain Barry was actively em- 
ployed in the Alliance during that year, but does not seem to 
have had any memorable engagement. 

There were now only two frigates left in the American navy 
— the Alliance and the Hague. The command of the latter 
was given to Captain John Manly, after his release from cap- 
tivity (see page 13). This pioneer officer of the United States 
Navy cruised in the West Indies until after the preliminary 
treaty of peace was signed, in the autumn of 1782, and there 
closed the regular maritime operations of the United States at 
that period (which he had opened) by a successful escape after 
a long chase by a vastly superior force. 

The privateers during the old war for independence were 
very numerous, active, and efficient. An account of these ex- 
ploits would fill a large volume. I have mentioned only a few 
of them. 

" One of the most brilliant actions that ever occurred under 
the American flag," wrote Cooper, fifty years afterward, "was 
the battle between the Hyder Ally \^Ali^, a vessel belonging 
to the State of Pennsylvania, and the General MoyiJc, in Dela- 
ware Bay, in the spring of 1782. The bay and river were 
much infested by British cruisers and small craft, and the 
State of Pennsylvania determined to fit out one or two cruisers 
at its own expense to drive them off. A small ship named 
the Hyder Ali, which had actually started on an outward- 
bound voyage, laden with flour, was called back and purchased 
by the State ; and so rapidly was she fitted up for war pur- 
poses that, before all the forms of law in the purchase had 
been observed, she had won a splendid victory. 

The Hyder AH was commanded by Captain Joshua Barne}^ 
then only twenty-three years of age, who was commissioned 
captain by the authorities of Pennsylvania. She was well 
armed, and manned with one hundred and ten men. On the 



54 STORY OF THE UNITED STATES NAVY. 

8tli of April she was near the entrance to Delaware Bay with 
a considerable convoy of outward-bound merchantmen. The 
whole fleet had anchored in the Roads near Cape May, waiting 
for a wind to get to sea, when two ships and a brig appeared, 
one of the former rounding the cape, and evidently intending 
to make an attack. Barney immediately signalled the convoy 
to turn ; and they ran before the wind up the bay, the Hyder 
All covering their flight. One of the ships and a brig stood 
for Barney's ship. The brig (which was the British privateer 
Fair America)!) came up, fired a broadside, but kept aloof. 
The Hyder AH did not return the fire, but when the other 
pursuers came within a proper distance Barney poured in a 
broadside. Soon afterward, while the combatants were firing 
great guns with energy, Barney, by an expert movement, got 
his ship entangled with his antagonist in such a way that the 
Hyder AH swept her decks with a destructive, raking fire. 

" Then, yard-arm and yard-arm meeting, 

Straight began the dismal fray, 
Cannon mouths, each other greeting, 

Belched their smoky flames away. 
Soon the langrage, grape, and chain-shot, 

That from Barney's cannons flew, 
Swept the Monk, and cleared each i^oundtop, 

Killed and wounded half her crew." 

In less than half an hour the British vessel surrendered, for 
5he was badly crippled, and had lost about fifty men. Barney 
did not know until after he had won his prize that she was 
the General Monk, of twenty guns, Captain Rodgers, former- 
ly the American ship George Washington, which had been capt- 
ured by British cruisers and placed in the Royal Navy. Her 
old name was now restored to her, and under the command of 
Barney she afterward did good service in the West Indies. 

Here ends the story of the doings of the little navy of the 
Confederated States before those States became a real nation. 



A RIGHTEOUS CAUSE VICTORIOUS. 55 

The people of the English-American colonies had rushed to 
arms, on the land and on the sea, in defence of their rights and 
liberties, trusting to the help of Divine Providence in resisting 
the mighty power of Great Britain ; as David did, when, with 
his sling and pebbles, he went out boldly to fight the Philistine 
giant. As in the case of David, Divine help gave final victory 
to the Americans battling for a righteous cause — a struggle for 
freedom from vassalage, injustice, and oppression. 



56 STORY OF THE UNITED ^TATES NAVY. 



CHAPTER Y. 

There was a peculiar kind of operations carried on during 
the old war for independence called " whale-boat warfare." 
The vessels employed were generally row-boats, similar to those 
employed by whale-fishers. These vessels were about thirtj'^ 
feet in length, sharp at both ends, very light, equipped with 
from four to twenty oars, and well calculated for speed and 
silence. They were found in private services for traffic in al- 
most every bay and inlet on the coast, from the Thames, in 
Connecticut, to Shrewsbury River, New Jersey. They were 
employed in carrying the products of the soil to, and bringing 
British goods from, the English, who occupied New York, Long- 
Island, and Staten Island from 1776 until 1783, or from Brit- 
ish vessels lying in the waters around them. 

A brisk business was soon established upon this basis of traf- 
fic, known as " London Trading," which became very obnox- 
ious to the patriots, for it gave "aid and comfort to the ene- 
my," and measures were adopted to suppress it. But it was 
so profitable that many continued to practice it at great risks, 
and some of the participants, tempted by their cupidity and 
greed, became vulgar marauders, plundering friend and foe 
alike. Both the Whigs and Tories had representatives among 
them, and, like the " Cowboys " and " Skinners " on the Neu- 
tral Ground in Westchester County, New York, during the 
Revolution, they frequently joined and divided their plunder 
equally. 

So expert and successful were these unlawful whale-boat ex- 
peditions, that the same kind of vessels were finally used for 



SMALL-BOAT ADVENTURES. 57 

purely military purposes. Sometimes they were employed in 
the public service, and sometimes on private account; and the 
Bay of New York, and also Long Island Sound, became the 
theatre of many stirring adventures connected with this species 
of warfare. 

The first small-boat expedition of much consequence was 
undertaken by Elias Dayton and Lord Stirling, of New Jersey, 
soon after the battle of Bunker's Hill, in the summer of 1775, 
Informed that a British transport and provision ship was 
lying at sea some distance off Sandy Hook, the Committee of 
Safety at Elizabethtown, New Jersey, ordered an attempt to 
capture it by four armed sail -boats. Dayton and Stirling 
commanded them. About forty miles from Sandy Hook they 
came in sight of the British vessel. The men in the boats 
were all concealed under hatches, excepting two in each, who 
were unarmed, and who managed the oars. Mistaken for fish- 
ing-vessels, they were allowed to come along-side the transport. 
At a preconcerted signal, the hatches were raised, the armed 
Americans poured forth and swarmed on the deck of the Eng- 
lish vessel, and in a few minutes she was their prize, there hav- 
ing been hardly a show of resistance. The captured ship was 
the Blue Mountain Valley, and her captors received the thanks 
of Congress. 

In the summer of 1776 Adam Hyler and William Marriner, 
of New Brunswick, New Jersey, so much annoyed the British 
vessels lying in the vicinity of Staten Island, that an armed 
British force landed and destroyed their boats. Others were 
immediately built, and these two bold men at once began a 
system of effective hostility. They cruised between Egg Har- 
bor and Staten Island, and made every Tory fisherman pay 
them tribute. Hyler and his men captured several small Brit- 
ish vessels ; made unwelcome visits to Tories (men opposed to 
the American cause) on Long Island ; carried off a Tory and 
his negroes from Flatlands, on that island, and captured two 



58 STORY OF THE UNITED STATES NAVY. 

British corvettes in Coney Island Bay. This bold act was done 
so cautiously that they secured every man on the vessels as 
prisoners, without firing a shot. They then set fire to the cor- 
vettes, and burnt them to the water's edge. One of them, it 
was afterward ascertained, contained forty thousand dollars in 
specie — a treasure unsuspected by Hyler and his men. 

In the spring of 1*782 Captain Lippincott, a Tory refugee 
living in New York, at the head of sixteen men, seized and 
hung Captain Iluddy, commander of a block-house near Tom's 
River, New Jersey. The act was simply murder; but no sat- 
isfaction could be obtained from the British commander at 
New York. Hyler resolved to seize Lippincott. He ascer- 
tained that he lived in a house on Broad Street. With men 
equipped like a British man-of-war press-gang, he landed at 
Whitehall at nine o'clock in the evening, and proceeded to the 
Tory's dwelling; but he was absent, and Hyler's plans mis- 
carried. 

On leaving Whitehall, disappointed and chagrined, Hyler 
and his men boarded a British sloop off the battery, laden with 
forty hogsheads of rum. They secured the crew, landed the 
cargo at Elizabethtown, and then burnt the vessel. In some 
of these excursions Hyler was accompanied by Marriner, and 
their names became a terror to the Tories. 

The Connecticut whale-boatmen were such bold and expert 
mariners that no vessel belonging to Tories or the British on 
Long Island Sound was considered safe if not well armed. 
They were employed, also, in regular military operations. Late 
in May, 1777, Colonel R. J. Meigs, with one hundred and sev- 
enty men, crossed Long Island Sound from Guilford, Connecti- 
cut, in whale-boats, accompanied by two armed sloops. They 
carried their boats across the northern part of the island, re- 
embarked on Peconick Bay, and when within four miles of 
Sagg Harbor, their place of destination, they left the little ves- 
sels in the woods, and proceeded to capture or destroy the 



CAPTURE OF GENERAL BARTON. 



59 



whole British force stationed at the harbor. They burnt 
twelve brigs and sloops, one hundred tons of hay, and a large 
quantity of stores and merchandise, and returned to the Con- 
necticut shore with ninety prisoners, without losing a man. 
Congress gave Meigs thanks and a sword. Retaliation follow- 
ed, and the people on island and main suffered much. 

A little further eastward a notable exploit was performed in 
connection with the whale-boat service, that produced a great 
sensation, in the summer of 1777. The British troops, com- 
manded by General Prescott, then occupied the island of Rhode 
Island. The tyranny of the general disgusted and irritated 
the inhabitants. His head-quarters then was at a farm-house 
a few miles from Newport, near the shore of Narraganset Bay. 




WILLIAM BARTON. 



On a warm night in July, Lieutenant-colonel William Barton, 
with a few chosen men, embarked at Providence in whale- 
boats, and with muffled oars went down the bay, with the in- 



GO STORY OF THE UNITED §TATES NAVY. 

tention of seizing Prescott. They passed unobserved through 
the British fleet at near midnight, landed near Prescott's quar- 
ters, secured the sentinels, and proceeded directly to the gener- 
al's room in a second story. It was locked, but was instantly 
broken open by a stout negro who was with Barton, and who 
made a battering-ram of his head. The general was seized, 
hurried to the boats in undress, and was finally taken to Wash- 
ington's head-quarters in New Jersey. For this exploit Con- 
gress gave Barton an elegant sword. 

In the years 1780 and 1781 the whale-boat warfare was pur- 
sued by both parties along the shores of Long Island Sound 
with much violence, until the " Board of Associated Loyalists," 
or Tories — who fostered a sort of guerilla warfare, secret and 
irregular, that greatly distressed and irritated the patriots — was 
dissolved. 

During the old war for independence, or between the years 
1775 and 1783, the United States had thirty-six vessels of war 
afloat, whose names and fate were as follows : 

Alliance, 32 guns, converted into an Indiaman ; Deane 
{Hague), 32 ; Virginia, 28, captured before getting to sea, in 
1778 ; Confederacy, 32, taken in 1781 ; Hancock, 32, taken by 
the Rainbow in 1777; Randolph, 32, blown up in 1778; Ra- 
leigh, 32, captured in 1778; Washington, 32, destroyed in the 
Delaware before getting to sea ; Warren, 32, burnt in the Pe- 
nobscot in 1779; Queen of France, 2^ captured at Charleston 
in 1780; Trtimbull, 28, caipinred in 1781; Effingham, 2^ 
burnt by the British in the Delaware before getting to sea ; 
Congress, 28, burnt in the Hudson by the Americans before 
.getting to sea; Alfred, 24, captured in 1778; Columbus, 20; 
Delaware, 24, captured in the Delaware in 1777; Boston, 24, 
captured at Charleston in 1780 ; Montgomery, 24, destroyed in 
the Hudson by the Americans, in 1777, before getting to sea; 
Hampden, 14 ; Reprisal, foundered at sea in 1778 ; Lexington, 
14, taken in the English Channel in 1778; Andrea Doria, 14, 



VESSELS OF THE CONTINENTAL NAVY. 61 

burnt in the Delaware by the Americans, in 177V ; Cahot, 16, 
driven ashore in 1777; Ranger, 18, captured at Charleston in 
1780; Saratoga, 16, lost at sea; Diligent, 14, burnt in the 
Penobscot, 1779 ; Gates, 14:, ?ix\di Hornet, 10; Surprise — seized 
by the French government in 1777 ; Revenge, 10, sold in 1780 ; 
Providence, 12, taken in the Penobscot in 1779; Sachem, 10; 
Independence, 10; Dolphin, 10; and Wasp, 8, destroyed in the 
Delaware. 

The following-named ships made one or more cruises un- 
der the American flag commanded by American officers: Bon- 
honime Richard, 40 guns, sunk off the coast of Scotland in 1779 ; 
Pallas, 32, Vengeance, 12, and Cerf, 18, left the service after a 
single cruise; Ariel, 20, borrowed from the King of France, 
and supposed to have been returned. 

There were several more small cruisers, mounting from four 
to ten guns, sent out by the United States during the Revolu- 
tion, most of which probably fell into the hands of the British. 
The America, 74 guns, to the command of which Commodore 
Jones was appointed (see page 46), but which was presented 
to the French Government before she put to sea, was the heav- 
iest ship that had then been laid down in the United States. 
Jones spoke of her as "the largest of seventy -fours in the 
world." This vessel was captured from the French by the 
British. 

On the conclusion of peace, after a contest of seven years 
and ten months, orders for the recall of the different cruisers 
afloat were immediately given, and the commissions of all pri- 
vateers were revoked. The whole number of British vessels 
captured by the Americans during the war is not known. Six 
hundred and fifty prizes, it is said, were taken into port. Many 
of the remainder were ransomed, and some were destrojed at 
sea. The injury done to the commerce of Great Britain, direct- 
ly and indirectly, was enormous. 

The commercial and manufacturing classes in Great Britain, 



62 STORY OF THE UNITED STATES NAVY. 

then as now, Leld a controlling influence in public affairs. 
They had suffered much in many ways from the depredations 
and dread of American cruisers; and there can be little doubt 
that the acknowledgment of the independence of the United 
States by Great Britain was hastened (as in the case of the 
repeal of the Stamp Act^) by the importunities and influence 
of these classes. That acknowledgment was made by King 
George the Third on the 20th day of January, 1783, who, after 
a bitter contest for twenty years with his American subjects, 
saw with deep regret that, by listening to unwise advisers and 
the dictates of his own stubborn will, he had dismembered the 
British Empire, and lost the brightest jewel in his crown. 

^ See page 4. 



LEAGUE OF STATES — NOT A NATION. 63 



CHAPTER VI. 

The government and people of the United States, at the 
close of the war for independence, were impoverished and em- 
barrassed by debt. They felt themselves unable to support a 
navy. Indeed, there seemed to be little use for one. Like the 
Army of the Revolution, the navy was disbanded at its close, 
literally " leaving nothing behind it but the recollection of its 
services and sufferings." The last remnant of it — the Alliance 
— was reluctantly parted with in June, 1785, to save the ex- 
pense of repairs. 

Our Republic was then only a League of States, not a Na- 
tion, and without power excepting what was derived from the 
reluctant consent of the thirteen individual commonwealths 
that composed the League. Each State had its own custom- 
house, levied its own duties, regulated its own commerce, and 
some of them maintained small cruisers which performed the 
service of coast-guards and revenue-cutters. 

American commerce began to revive after the war, and slow- 
ly expanded. So early as 1784 and 1785, two American ves- 
sels carried the stars and stripes — our national flag — into Chi- 
nese ports. But commerce did not venture much abroad, for 
it had no government competent to protect it. The tottering 
League of States received very few tokens of respect from 
European governments. English statesmen regarded the con- 
tinued existence of the League as so doubtful that they re- 
fused to enter into commercial arrangements with the Ameri- 
cans. Among the Americans themselves there was doubt, 
confusion, and great anxiety. Wise men perceived great perils 



64 STOEY OF THE UNITED STATES NAVY. 

threatening the forming nation, and the aspect of political af- 
fairs around tliem was dismal indeed. 

Patriots sought to avert the impending danger hy strength- 
ening the central government. They met, by representatives, 
in convention at Philadelphia in the summer of 1V8V, and 
framed a new Constitution, which gave the Republic a true na- 
tional government, with powers to act vigorously. Europeans 
observed with great interest the significant change from a fee- 
ble League of States to a healthy nation, and hastened to send 
ambassadors to our seat of government. Then the United 
States first took a conspicuous place in the family of nations, 
with Geoige Washington as its President, or chief magistrate. 

Meanwhile the Dey or ruler of Algiers, on the southern 
coast of the Mediterranean Sea (whose people were chiefly 
Arabs), learning that a new nation had been formed beyond 
the Atlantic Ocean, but had no cruisers, sent his piratical sea- 
rovers to seize American ships. In July, 1785, two vessels were 
captured by the pirates near the Straits of Gibraltar, and their 
crews were made slaves to North African masters. One of 
these ships was from Boston, the other from Philadelphia. 
The "United States Government, such as it was then, was pow- 
erless, because it possessed no vessels of war to protect its com- 
merce. Even when it assumed national functions under the 
new Constitution, tliis want was felt. President Washington 
urged the creation of a navy competent for such protection, 
but Congress hesitated. 

For awhile war between Portugal and Algiers gave protec- 
tion to American commerce in that region, for Portuguese war- 
ships drove the Algerine pirates to their own ports, and kept 
them there. But in 1793 this war suddenly ceased; the Al- 
gerine corsairs, as their pirate-ships were called, were let loose ; 
and in the fall of that year four more American vessels, with 
their crews, fell into the hands of the North Africans. Con- 
gress at last perceived that American commerce could not be 



FIEST PREPARATION FOR A NAVY PROPER. 65 

carried on in the Mediterranean Sea without a protector ; and 
in the spring of 1794 they authorized the construction of six 
frigates, none of them to mount less than thirty -two guns. 
The President at once ordered these vessels to be built, for he 
clearly perceived the need of them. 

Models supplied by Joseph Humphreys, of Philadelphia, 
were accepted by the government, and the keels of the follow- 
ing-named vessels were speedily laid : 

The Constitution, 44 guns, at Boston ; the President, 44, at 
New York ; the United States, 44, at Philadelphia ; the Chesa- 
peake, 38, at Portsmouth, Virginia ; the Constellation, 38, at 
Baltimore, Maryland ; and the Congress, 38, at Portsmouth, 
New Hampshire. 

This was the first step toward the establishment of the 
United States Navy proper. In selecting officers to command 
these vessels, the President naturally turned to the naval he- 
roes of the Revolution ; and the following-named persons were 
chosen, taking rank as in the order of this record : 

John Barry, Samuel Nicholson, Silas Talbot, Joshua Barney, 
Richard Dale, and Thomas Truxtun. The latter only had not 
served in the Continental Navy during the war for indepen- 
dence, but was a good privateersman. Barney declined the ap- 
pointment because he was put junior to Lieutenant- colonel 
Talbot; and his place was filled by Captain Sever. 

These preparations for establishing a navy were suddenly, 
and unwisely, suspended in the autumn of 1795, in consequence 
of the signing of a treaty w4th Algiers by which the United 
States became tributary to that half-barbarous power. This 
humiliating purchase of peace was at a cost of about a million 
dollars — a sum which would have built ships sufficient to seal 
the port of Algiers and make its ruler humbl}^ beg for mercy, 
as was done twenty years afterward. The President wished 
to do this, but his efforts in that direction were in vain. 

France and England were now at war with each other, and 

4 



66 



STOKY OF THE UNITED STATES NAVY. 



neither party respected the rights of the Americans. The 
French cruisers depredated upon American commerce until the 
burden became unbearable; and the English cruisers boarded 
American vessels and carried away seamen from them under 
the pretext that they were British subjects. Then began a 
system of search and im2jressment that became one of the chief 
causes of war between the United States and Great Britain 
afterward. 




BICUAltl) DALE. 



In the spring of 1798 war was threatened between the United 
States and France. The control of the defences of the na- 
tion and its interests was intrusted to the War Department 
alone. Its secretary strongly recommended the creation of a 
competent navy. Congress, startled by the threatening aspect 
of public affairs, listened, and soon afterward authorized the 
President (John Adams) to hire or purchase twelve vessels 
(none of them to exceed twenty-two gans) in addition to the 
six frigates then built or a-building. In April (1798) a Navy 
Department was created, and Benjamin Stodert, of Maryland, 



POPULARITY OF THE NAVY. 67 

was appointed the first Secretary of the Navy. In May a 
new appropriation was made for the construction of galleys 
and other small vessels; and in June the President was author- 
ized to accept twelve more vessels of war should they be offer- 
ed to him by the citizens, for which he was directed to offer 
public stock in payment. The frigates Constitution^ Constella- 
tion^ and United States were already afloat. 

The young navy was very popular. Very soon its vessels 
were filled with the sons of the best families in the land hold- 
ing the rank of midshipmen. Most of them were tender 
youths, and many of them grew up with the navy, and became 
distinguished citizens, honored because they were noble de- 
fenders of their country and champions of the rights of their 
countrymen. Young and intelligent seamen from the mercan- 
tile marine were attracted to the public vessels, and the littie 
navy of the United States at the close of the last century was, 
in its moral strength, superior to any in the world. 

The first United States ship-of-war that went to sea after 
the organization of the new navy was the Ganges, 24 guns. 
Captain Richard Dale. She sailed on the 22d of May, 1798, and 
cruised between Long Island and the capes of Virginia, simply 
to protect the ports of New York, Philadelphia, and Baltimore. 

Early in June, under authority to seize French cruisers, the 
Constellation, 38 guns. Captain Truxtun, and the Delaware, 20 
guns. Captain Decatur (the elder), went to sea. When a few 
days out, Decatur captured the French cruiser Le Croyable, 14 
guns, that was searching in American w^aters for prizes. She 
was sent into the Delaware. She was afterward added to the 
navy of the United States, with the name of Retaliation, and 
put under the charge of Lieutenant William Bainbridge. 

The United States, 44 guns. Captain Barry, went to sea early 
in July, carrying many young men who were active officers in 
the war of 1812-15 a few years later, and afterward became 
distinguished in their country's service. Just after he sailed, his 



68 STORY OF THE UNITED STATES NAVY. 

government sent him instructions to go to the West Indies 
with two other vessels under his command. Before the end 
of the year, nearly the whole American Navy were among those 
islands, or engaged in convoying American merchantmen be- 
tw^een there and the United States. So early as August, the 
Constellation, Captain Truxtun, and Baltimore, Captain Phil- 
lips, safely convoyed sixty merchant -vessels from Havana to 
the United States, in the face of eager French cruisers who 
were watching for prey. 

The sudden appearance of so many American cruisers in the 
West Indies astonished both the French and English. By the 
close of 1798 the American Navy consisted of twenty vessels 
in active service, with the aggregate of four hundred and forty- 
six guns. 

It was at this time that the first of a series of flagrant out- 
rages upon the American flag was committed by a British com- 
mander. The Baltimore, Captain Phillips, sailed out of the 
harbor of Havana in charge of a convoy bound for Charles- 
ton, at the middle of November. A British squadron was met 
while yet in sight of Havana, when Captain Phillips bore up 
to the British flag-ship (Carnatick) to speak to the commodore. 
To the surprise of Phillips, three of the convoy w^ere captured 
by the cruisers of Great Britain, notwithstanding the two coun- 
tries were at peace. Still greater was his surprise and indigna- 
tion, when, going on board the Carnatick by invitation, he was 
told by the commodore that it was his intention to take from 
the Baltimore every subject of the British monarch who had 
no American protective papers. 

Captain Phillips protested, and declared that he would for- 
mally surrender his ship and refer the matter to his govern- 
ment, if such an outrage should be committed, before he would 
submit to such indignity. On returning to his ship, Phillips 
found a British lieutenant on board mustering his men. Phil- 
lips indignantly took the muster-roll from him, ordered him to 



AN OUTRAGE AND ITS CONSEQUENCES. 69 

another part of the ship, and sent his men to their quarters. 
After consulting a lawyer who was on board, Phillips surren- 
dered his ship, for to fight would be vain. Fifty-five of his 
men were transferred to the Carnatick, but fifty of them were 
returned, when the British sailed away with the five seamen 
claimed as Englishmen, and three merchant- vessels as prizes. 

Captain Phillips laid the matter before his government. 
Trade with Great Britain was then very profitable, and the 
commercial interest, then very powerful in its influence upon 
the government, did not wish to offend the British. Taking- 
council of this interest, the American Cabinet had actually in- 
structed the commanders of American cruisers on no account 
— not even to save a vessel of their own nation — to molest 
those of other nations, the French only excepted. With obse- 
quious deference to the British — with shame I record it — the 
American Government passed by this outrage of the British 
commander, and actually committed a greater outrage itself, un- 
der the circumstances, by dismissing Captain Phillips from the 
navy without a trial. After that the Federal party in power 
were justly called the " British party." This degradation of 
the dignity of the nation disgusted honorable men, and had a 
powerful influence in effecting the overthrow of that party at 
the Presidential election in the year 1800. 

At about this time the Retaliation (late Le Croyable), Lieu- 
tenant Bainbridge, cruising off Guadeloupe, mistook some 
French vessels for English vessels. The Retaliation reconnoi- 
tred them, and discovered the mistake when it was too late. 
They were two French frigates ( Volontaire and Insurgente)^ and 
they made the Retaliation a prisoner. The two other vessels 
fled, and the Insurgente, one of the fastest sailing vessels in the 
world, pursued. Bainbridge was a prisoner on the Volontaire, 
the commander of which was the senior officer of the French 
squadron. The officers of the Volontaire, with Bainbridge, 
were watching the chase with eager interest, and the Insur- 



70 STORY OF THE U2^1TED STATES NAVY. 

gente was rapidly gaining upon the American vessels, when the 
French commander asked, 

" What are their armaments ?" 

" Twenty - eight 12's and twenty 9's," Bainbridge immedi- 
ately replied. 

This false statement of double their forces startled the 
French commander, and, deeming the Insurgente to be incurring 
too great peril in attacking two vessels of such strong arma- 
ment, he itnmediatety signaled her to give up the chase. At that 
moment she was near enough to the fugitives to discover their 
exact force, but she obeyed, and the American vessels escaped. 
Bainbridge was cursed by the irate Frenchmen for his decep- 
tion — that was all. The Retaliation was the first cruiser capt- 
ured by either party during that little marine war with France. 

During 1799 the American Navy was considerably increased, 
and the active force in the West Indies was distributed in four 
squadrons, ten vessels being under the command of Commodore 
Barry, the senior officer in the service. Truxtun commanded a 
squadron of five vessels, with the Constellation as his flag-ship ; 
Captain Tingey had a smaller number under him, and Captain 
Decatur, in charge of some revenue-cutters, guarded the inter- 
ests of American commerce off Havana. These squadrons 
made many prizes of French vessels. 

Early in 1799 Truxtun was cruising in the Constellation 
near the island of Nevis, when he saw a large French vessel to 
the southward, and gave chase. The Co7istellation overtook 
her in the afternoon (February 9th), and they immediately be- 
gan a fierce combat which lasted an hour and a quarter, when 
the commander of the French vessel struck his colors. She 
proved to be the famous French frigate Insurgente, 40 
guns. Captain Barreault, carrying four hundred and nine men. 
She was dreadfully shattered, and had lost seventy men. The 
prize was taken into St. Kitt's (St. Christopher's) in charge of 
Lieutenant (afterward Commodore) Rodgers. 



COMMODOKE TEUXTUN HONORED. 



This victory caused great exultation in the United States. 
Truxtun received many tokens of regard. London merchants 
sent him a service of silver plate worth $3000, on which was 
engraved a representation of the battle. The newspapers 




FIGHT BETWEEN THE "CONSTELLATION" ANI> " LA VENGEANCE." 



teemed with his praises ; and a ballad called " Truxtun's Vic- 
tory " was sung everywhere, in public and private (see Appen- 
dix). It was not poetry, but it touched the popular heart at 
that time in words like the following stanza : 



72 STORY OF THE UNITED ^STATES NAVY. 

" We sailed to the West Indies, in order to annoy 
The invaders of our commerce, to burn, sink or destroy ; 
Our Coixstellation shone so bright, 
The Frenchmen could not bear the sight. 
And away they scampered in affright, 
From the brave Yankee boys !" 

During the remainder of the year nothing of importance oc- 
curred in connection with the American Navy ; but a year af- 
ter the victory over the Insurgente, Truxtun gained another 
with the Constellation. He was seeking the large French frig- 
ate La Vengeance, off Guadeloupe, on the morning of February 
1st, 1800, when he discovered a sail to the southward which 
he took to be an English merchantman. He ran up English 
colors, but receiving no response, he gave chase, which contin- 
ued fifteen hours, when Truxtun discovered that it was a large 
French frigate. He boldly prepared to attack her, 4ind at 
eight o'clock in the evening his antagonist began a battle by 
shots from her stern and quarter guns. 

The combatants fought desperately, at pistol-shot distance, 
until one o'clock in the morning, the vessels running free, side 
by side, and pouring in broadsides. Suddenly the French frig- 
ate disappeared in the gloom, and Truxtun supposed she had 
gone to the bottom. The shrouds of the Constellation had 
been cut away. A squall came on, and her main-mast went by 
the board, carrying with it a midshipman and several topmen 
who were aloft. Truxtun, after small repairs, bore away to 
Jamaica ; and it was some time before he knew that he had 
fought the vessel he was searching for. La Vengeance, 54 guns, 
with four hundred men. The frigate, dreadfully crippled, had 
run away in the darkness, and escaped to Curacoa. Captain Pi- 
tot, her commander, acknowledged that he twice struck his flag 
during the engagement, which Truxtun did not observe. This 
victory over a superior foe added greatly to Truxtun's fame 
and the enthusiasm of his countrymen. It made the navy im- 
mensely popular. Congress gave him the thanks of the nation, 



THE navy" a favorite TOAST. 



Id 



and voted him a gold medal ' " The Navy " became a favorite 
toast at public banquets and other social gatherings ; and pict- 




tbuxtun's medal. 



^ A plain marble slab marks Truxtun's burial-place in Christ Church 
burying-ground, Philadelphia. 



4* 



•74 



STORY OF THE UNITED" STATES NAVY. 



nres of naval battles, and also 
naval songs, w,ere sold in the 
shops and in the streets. An 
enterprising crockery merchant 
caused pitchers of various sizes, 
commemorative of the navy, to 
be made for him in Liverpool, on 
which were pictures of ships un- 
der full sail, and sentiments like 
" Success to our infant Navy," 
et cmtera, were inscribed. 

Other naval victories over the 
French of less magnitude were achieved by the Americans soon 
afterward, and their cruisers continued active in the West In- 
dies during the remainder of the year, not so much in warfare, 




J^AVAL I'lTCUr.K. 



2.^^^^-^ 




truxtun's monument. 



BONAPARTE AND THE AMERICANS. 75 

but in watching the interests of commerce. In the early autumn 
friendly negotiations between France and the United States 
promised a speedy peace ; and the brief war, which had been 
carried on wholly upon the ocean, soon ceased. 

Napoleon Bonaparte, who had usurped the government of 
France, and had been made First Consul, or Chief Ruler, for 
life, was disposed to be friendly toward the Americans. A 
perfect reconciliation was effected, and very soon afterward 
successful negotiations were entered into w4th him for the 
purchase, by the United States, of the vast domain of the 
French on the Mississippi known as Louisiana. 



76 STOKY OF THE UNITED STATES NAVY. 



CHAPTER VII. 

AVhen Thomas Jefferson became President of the United 
States, in March, 1801, he began a system of careful economy 
in the management of public affairs, and his policy was ap- 
proved by Congress and the people. He was authorized to 
put the navy on a rigid peace footing, by retaining only thir- 
teen frigates, of which only six were to be kept in actual ser- 
vice. He caused seven of them to be laid up in ordinary, and 
all the rest of the public vessels, excepting the dismantled frig- 
ates, to be sold. The vessels sold being inferior, only about 
one-fifth of the real naval force was disposed of. 

Mr. Jefferson discharged all the officers and men not needed 
for service, and so that strong arm of national power, which, 
by its protection, had enabled the Americans to sell to foreign 
countries, during the difficulties with France, their surplus prod- 
ucts to the amount of $200,000,000, and to import sufficient 
to yield to the government a revenue exceeding $23,000,000, 
was paralyzed by unwise economy in expenditure. They did 
not heed the wise saying, " If you would save yourself from 
insult, be prepared to resent it." The conduct of the Barbary 
powers — Algiers, Tripoli, and Tunis, in Northern Africa — soon 
made the Americans perceive their own unwisdom. 

In May, 1800, Captain Bainbridge, in command of the George 
Washington, 24 guns, sailed for Algiers, with the usual tribute 
for the Dey (see page 65). When Bainbridge was about to 
leave, the Dey requested him to carry an Algerian ambassador 
to the Sultan, his master, at Constantinople. Bainbridge po- 
litely declined, when the haughty ruler said, significantly : • 



BAINBRIDGE AND THE DEY OF ALGIERS. 



" You pay me tribute, by wbich you become my slaves, and 
therefore I have a right to order you as I think proper." 

The guns of the castle commanded Bainbridge's ship, and 
without their permission he could not pass out of the harbor. 
The American consul assured him that they would be used for 
the destruction of his ship, if he did not comply ; so he yield- 
ed, and even obeyed the Dey's further requirement that he 
should carry the Algerian flag at the main, and that of the 
United States at the fore. 





ALGIKRS IN 1800, 



Bainbridge sailed out of the harbor an obedient slave, but 
once on the broad sea he palled down the evidence of the in- 
sult to his country, and, as a freeman, put the American flag 
in its place. On arriving at Constantinople, he wrote to the 
Secretary of the Navy : 

" I hope I shall never again be sent to Algiers with tribute. 



78 STORY OF THE UNITED gTATES NAVY. 

unless I am authorized to deliver it from the mouth of our 
caunon." 

Bat his Diission to the Sultan was not without good results. 
That ruler and his great officers of State were astonished b}^ the 
presence of the American ship and her commander. They 
had never even heard of the United States. 

When the Saltan was informed concerning our country, 
Bainbridge and his officers were treated with marked courtesy 
by the monarch and his court. The flag of the Ottoman em- 
pire bore a crescent-moon as its device ; the flag of the United 
States bore a constellation of stars, and the Turks drew a fa- 
vorable omen from this visit of our stars to their moon. The 
Sultan expressed his belief that the two nations must ever be 
friends, and so they have been. 

When Bainbridge was about to return to Algiers, the Turk- 
ish admiral gave him ?k firman (decree of the royal government), 
to protect him from further insolence from the Dey. When he 
reached Algiers, the Dey requested him to return to Constan- 
tinople on another errand. Bainbridge haughtily refused. 
The astonished Dey flew into a rage, and threatened the cap- 
tain with personal chastisement, and his country with war. 
Bainbridge quietly produced the firman, when the fierce gov- 
ernor became lamb-like, and obsequiously offered his " slaves " 
his friendship and service. Bainbridge assumed the air of 
a dictator, and demanded the release of the French consul, 
and fifty or sixty of his countrymen, who had lately been 
made prisoners. It was immediately done. When he depart- 
ed, he carried away all the French in Algiers without paying 
any ransom. 

The United States had purchased not only from the ruler 
of Algiers, but from those of Tunis and of Tripoli, not their 
friendship, but their forbearance, with money or a stipulated 
tribute (see page Q5). The insolent treatment of Bainbridge, 
and a sense of true dignity, made the United States Govern- 



AMERICAN CRUISERS IN THE MEDITERRANEAN. 79 

ment determine, in the spring of 1801, to humble the pride of 
these pirates, and release commerce from their thrall. 

The ruler of Tripoli, not content with what he received, be- 
cause it was less than that of his neighbors, caused the flag- 
staff of the American Consulate to be cut down, and declared 
war against the United States. That was in May, 1801. Com- 
modore Dale had already been sent to the Mediterranean with 
a small squadron, composed of the President^ 44 guns (the flag- 
ship). Captain James Barron ; PhiladeliJhia, 38, Captain Sam- 
uel Barron; Essex, 32, Captain Bainbridge; and Enterprise, 
12, Lieutenant-commander Sterrett. 

This little squadron reached Gibraltar on the first of July. 
Dale's ship, in company with the little Enterprise, soon appear- 
ed off Tunis and Tripoli, to the great astonishment of their 
rulers. The Enterprise had captured a Tripolitan corsair on 
the way, after a battle of three hours. Meanwhile the Phila- 
delphia cruised in the Straits of Gibraltar, to bar the way of 
Tripolitan vessels seen near to the open Atlantic Ocean, while 
the Essex cruised along the northern shore of the Mediterra- 
nean, to convoy American merchant-ships. Dale cruised until 
autumn, and his presence made the Barbary powers very cir- 
cumspect. 

The following year (1802) a relief squadron was sent to the 
Mediterranean under Commodore R. V. Morris. The Chesa- 
peake, 38 guns, acting captain Lieutenant Chauncy, was his 
flag-ship. The other vessels were the Constellation, 38 guns; 
New YorJc, 36 ; John Adams, 28 ; Adams, 28 ; and Enterprise, 
12. These sailed at different times, from February until Sep- 
tember. The Constellation joined the Boston, which had been 
cruising in an independent way, in blockading the harbor of 
Tripoli. She was soon abandoned by the Boston, and main- 
tained the blockade alone. Her commander, Captain Murray, 
was a brave and expert leader. Not long after the Boston left, 
the Constellation had a severe contest with a flotilla of seveU' 



80 STORY OP THE UNITED §TATES NAVY. 

teen Tripolitan gun-boats, which she pounded unmercifully and 
scattered in confusion, as well as some cavah-y on shore. Her 
great guns were too much for the TripoHtans. 

The other vessels of the squadron arrived and cruised along 
the northern shore of the Mediterranean for the protection of 
American commerce. Finally, the whole squadron collected at 
Malta in January, 1803, and during the spring appeared off the 
ports of the Barbary States, effectually imprisoning their cor- 
sairs within their harbors for a time. 

In May the John Adams had a very severe battle with Tu- 
nisian gun- boats and land -batteries, and suffered much loss. 
She had been blockading the harbor of Tunis for some time. 
This battle was followed by movements of the Tunisian and 
Algerian corsairs that caused the Americans to raise the block- 
ade, and after effecting the destruction of a Tripolitan cruiser 
in a bay, the squadron all left the African shores. Morris had 
effected but little in the Mediterranean ; and on his return in 
November, 1803, the President dismissed him from the service 
without trial. 

The United States Government now determined to act with 
more vigor against the Mediterranean pirates, and in May, 
1803, Commodore Edward Preble was appointed to the com- 
mand of a squadron consisting of the Constitution, 44 guns ; 
Philadelphia, 38; Argus and Siren, 16 each; and JVautilus, 
Vixen, and Enterimse, 12 each. The Constitution w^as Preble's 
flag-ship. 

As before, the squadron did not sail together. The Phila- 
delphia, Captain Bainbridge, was in the Mediterranean in Au- 
gust, and captured a Moorish frigate which he found holding, 
as a prize, an American merchant vessel. Discovering that the 
frigate was cruising for American prizes, under orders from the 
Moorish governor of Tangiers, Bainbridge took her into Gib- 
raltar. On his arrival there, Preble proceeded to Tangiers early 
in October with the Constitution, New York, John Adams, and 



DESTRUCTION OF THE PHILADELPHIA. ' 81 

Nautilus, and obtained an interview with tlie Emperor of Mo- 
rocco, who disavowed the act of the frigate. 

This difficulty being settled, Preble went to Malta, and there 
prepared to humble the ruler of Tripoli. Meanwhile the Phil- 
adelphia had chased a Tripolitan ship into the harbor in front 
of that town, where the American vessel struck upon a rock not 
then laid down on an}^ of the charts. Fast bound, she was capt- 
ured by the Tripolitans, and Bainbridge and his officers were 
made prisoners of war, while the crew were made slaves. Bain- 
bridge found means to communicate with Preble at Malta, and 
advised the adoption of measures to destroy the grounded Phil- 
adelphia, for her captors were fitting her out for sea. 

Preble had lately appeared off Tripoli in the Constitution 
for the first time, accompanied by the Enterprise, commanded 
by Lieutenant Stephen Decatur, Jr. Late in December, Deca- 
tur captured a Tripolitan ketch laden with maidens, who were 
slaves of the ruler of Tripoli, whom he was sending to Constan- 
tinople as a present to the Sultan. With this vessel and her 
cargo Decatur sailed into Syracuse, accompanied by the flag- 
ship. There he formed a plan for cutting out the Philadelphia, 
which Preble approved. 

The captured ketch was taken into the service, and named 
the Intrepid. In her Decatur and seventy-four brave young 
men sailed for Tripoli, with orders to recapture or destroy the 
Philadelphia. She was accompanied by the Siren, Lieutenant 
(afterward Commodore) Stewart. On a bright moonlit even- 
ing (the 16th of February, 1804) they entered the harbor of 
Tripoli, the Litrepid assuming the character of a vessel in dis- 
tress, without exciting suspicion. Her officers and crew were 
mostly concealed. 

The Intrepid was warped along-side the Philadelphia, when 
the Tripolitans suspected treachery. Instantly Decatur and 
the other officers, followed by their men, sprung on board the 
Philadelphia, and after a fierce struggle with her turbaned de- 



82 STORY OF THE UNITED^ STATES NAVY. 

fenders, the Tripolitans were all killed or driven into the sea. 
The Philadelphia was set on fire, and at near midnight a sub- 
lime spectacle was presented. The frigate w^as all ablaze, and 
the cannons of the castle, of batteries on shore, and of corsairs 
lying near, thundered incessantly, pouring shot and shell into 
the vicinity of the conflagration, hoping to destroy the incen- 
diaries. At the same time the fitful discharg-es of the 2:reat 
guns of the Philadelphia^ as the flames reached them, added 
to the roar of the artillery. From this fiery ordeal Decatur 
and his men escaped with only four wounded, and the boats of 
the Siren^ ly^^^o <^^^tside, with strong sweeps, towed the Intrepid 
beyond danger. The heroes were received at Syracuse by the 
people and the American squadron with demonstrations of great 
joy. Decatur was promoted to captain, and his oificers were 
advanced in rank. 

The Bashaiv^ or Governor of Tunis, was greatly alarmed by 
this display of American energy and boldness, and when his 
port was afterward blockaded by Preble, he acted with great 
caution. His harbor was guarded by batteries, mounting one 
hundred and fifteen cannons ; by nineteen gun-boats, a brig, 
two schooners, and seven galleys, twenty -five thousand land 
soldiers, and a sheltering reef of dangerous rocks and shoals. 
Undismayed by these formidable obstacles, the gaUant Preble 
entered the harbor on the 3d of August, and in the afternoon 
he opened a heavy cannonade and bombardment from his gun- 
boats, which he had procured at Naples, and which, alone, could 
get near enough for effective service. The walled city was two 
miles distant. 

Decatur again made a grand display of skill and courage. 
Commanding one of the gun -boats, he lay his vessel along- 
side one of the largest of the Tripolitan vessels in the harbor, 
and captured her after a brief struggle. He immediately board- 
ed another, when he had a desperate personal conflict wdth 
her powerful commander. The struggle was brief, but deadly. 



Preble's attack on Tripoli. 83 

Decatur slew his antagonist, and tlie vessel was captured. Af- 
ter a general struggle of two hours the Americans withdrew, 
but renewed the conflict four days afterward. Three Tripoli- 
tan gun-boats had been sunk in the harbor, and three of them 
were captured. 

The second battle at Tripoli began on the afternoon of the 
7th of August, and after a severe engagement the Americans 
again withdrew, but renewed the attack on the 24th of the 
same month. A sad casualty occurred on the 7th. A hot shot 
from the town entered the hull of one of the gun-boats, and 
fired her magazine. Her commander. Lieutenant Caldwell of 
the Siren^ Midshipman Dorsey, and eight of her crew, were 
killed by the explosion, and six others were wounded. When 
the smoke of the explosion cleared away. Midshipman Spence 
and eleven others were seen on the bow of the sinking vessel 
(which was yet above water), loading the long 24-pounder with 
which she was armed. Tliey gave three hearty cheers, dis- 
charged the gun at the enemy, and a moment afterward were 
picked up, for the wreck that was under them had gone to the 
bottom. 

The attack on Tripoli on the 24th left no important results, 
but before daylight on the 28th of August the American gun- 
boats made another sharp assault. At dawn the Constitution 
ran into the harbor, assailed the town, batteries, and castle, si- 
lenced the latter and two batteries, sunk a Tunisian vessel, 
damaged a Spanish one, severely handled the Tripolitan gun- 
boats and galleys, and then Avithdrew without having a man hurt. 

Preble again attacked Tripoli on the 3d of September. His 
squadron sailed into the harbor in the afternoon of that day. 
There was a general engagement for an hour and a quarter, the 
Constitution firing eleven effective broadsides. The wind ris- 
ing, Preble prudently withdrew. 

It was now determined to send in an immense torpedo or 
floating mine to destroy the Tripolitan cruisers in the harbor. 



84 STORY OF THE UNITED STATES NAVY. 

For this purpose the Intrepid was used. A hundred barrels of 
gunpowder were placed under her deck, and over these were 
laid shot and shell, and irregular pieces of iron. Combustibles 
were placed in other parts of the vessel, to be set on fire at a 
proper moment. 

This destructive sea-monster was placed in charge of Captain 
Somers, who, with Lieutenant Wadsworth of the Constitution, 
and young Israel, an ardent officer, wOio got on the Intrejnd by 
stealth, were the only persons engaged in the expedition, ex- 
cepting men to manage two boats to tow the torpedo into the 
harbor and carry away the officers above named. At nine 
o'clock, on a very dark niglit (September 4th), she was towed 
into the hai-bor. All eyes were strained to watch the result 
after the Intrepid and the boats disappeared in the gloom. 
Suddenly a fierce and lurid light shot up from the dark bosom 
of the waters like a volcanic fire, that illuminated town, castle, 
shipping, and shores. This was instantly followed by an ex- 
plosion that made earth and sea and air tremble for miles 
around. Flaming fragments fell in a fearful shower, when all 
was again silence and darkness more profound than before. 
Anxious eyes and ears on the American vessels were bent in 
the direction of the explosion until the dawn for tidings of 
the brave men who went on the perilous expedition. They 
never came out of the harbor, nor have they been heard of 
since. Nearly fourscore years their fate has been an impene- 
trable secret. At the western front of the Capitol at Wash- 
ington stands a fine monument, erected to their memory, and of 
those who perished on the 7th of August, by officers of the navy.* 

The stormy season now coming on, Commodore Preble ceased 
hostile operations, except keeping up the blockade of Tripoli. 
On the 10th of September (1804) Preble was relieved by the 

* This monument is of white marble, and with its present pedestal (not 
seen in the engraving) is about forty feet in height. 



HONORS TO COMMODOEE PREBLE. 



85 



arrival of Commodore Samuel Barron, and he returned home. 
He was greeted with affection and honors by a grateful people, 




NAVAL MONU^lE^ 



and Congress gave him the thanks of the nation and a gold 
medal. 

Barron, with his flag-ship the President, found himself in com- 



86 



STOEY OF THE UNITED STATES NAVY. 



maud of a raucli larger force than the Americans had ever put 
afloat on the bosom of the Mediterranean Sea. It consisted of 




PREBLE B MEBAI.. 



twelve vessels, several of the commanders of which were after- 
ward distinguished in the war of 1812-15. The war with Trip- 
oli soon afterward was ended by a land expedition and a treaty. 



TJRIPOLI AND TUNIS SUBDUED. 87 

Hamet Caramalli was the rightful ruler of Tripoli, but his 
brother had usurped his place, and Hamet had fled to Egypt 
and taken refuge with the Mamelukes. Captain William Ea- 
ton was American Consul at Tunis, and he resolved to make 
common cause with Hamet against the usurper. The latter 
left the Mamelukes, with forty followers, and joined Eaton 
west of Alexandria. The consul had gathered a small force 
composed of men of all nations. 

Early in March the allies, with transportation consisting of 
one hundred and ninety camels, started for Tripoli, a journey 
of a thousand miles through a wild and desert country. At 
near the close of April they approached Derne, a Tripolitan 
seaport town, and, with the aid of two vessels of the American 
squadron, captured it. Their followers had now become nu- 
merous, and they were marching on the capital with a promise 
of full success, when a courier reached them with the news that 
Tobias Lear, the American Consul-general on that coast, had 
made a treaty of peace with the terrified ruler. This blasted 
the hopes of Caramalli. 

The Governor of Tunis was yet insolent, and Commodore 
Rodgers (who had succeeded Barron) anchored thirteen vessels 
before the capital of this Barbary chief. The terrified Bashaw, 
perceiving his danger, was humbled, and he sent a letter to the 
commodore expressing a desire to treat. So the last of the 
North African robbers was subdued at that time. The power 
of the American Government had been made manifest through 
its navy alone. It was now acknowledged and feared by all 
those States, and American commerce in the Mediterranean 
was relieved of great peril. An American bard wrote : 

" When fame shall tell the splendid story 
Of Columbia's naval glory, 
Since victorious o'er the deep 
Our eagle-flag was seen to sweep, 



88 STORY OF THE UNITED STATES NAYY. 

The glowing tale will form a page 
To grace the annals of the age, 
And teach our sons to proudly claim 
The brightest meed of naval fame. 
In lofty strains the bard shall tell 
How Truxtun fought, how Somers fell ! 
How gallant Preble's daring host 
Triumphed along the Moorish coast ; 
Forced the proud infidel to treat, 
And brought the Crescent to their feet !" 

The Barbary States at that time stretched along Northern 
Africa from the western boundary of Egypt to the Atlantic 
Ocean, and from the Mediterranean to the Desert of Sahara. 
Their name was derived from the Berbers, the ancient inhabi- 
tants of that region, whose descendants still make a considera- 
ble portion of the population. They have been conquered, in 
succession, by the Phoenicians, Romans, Vandals, and Arabs. 
Their rulers, when the war with the United States occurred, 
were the Arabs, who took possession of the country more than 
a thousand years ago. 



EFFRONTERY OF BRITISH CRUISERS. 89 



CHAPTER VIII. 

After the war with the Barbary States the American naval 
force in the Mediterranean was somewhat reduced. Prudence, 
however, prevailed against the folly of those who blindly pro- 
posed to withdraw the ships-of-war because the African pirates 
were no longer depredators, and a small squadron was kept in 
the Mediterranean Sea. The government, taught by experience, 
knew the value of a navy at home as well as abroad. Two 
vessels of war, of the most approved models, w^ere now built, 
and several new ones were put afloat 'at about the same time. 
The two vessels [Wasjy, 18 guns, and Hornet, 18 guns — the 
former a ship, and the latter a brig) became active cruisers on 
the peace establishment. 

When war between France and England was renewed in 
1803, the latter revived its offensive system of searching Amer- 
ican vessels for British seamen, and transferring them to the 
Royal Navy. Remonstrances were in vain. This business 
was carried on with a high hand, and many American citizens 
suffered British tyranny in this way. In June, 1805, an Amer- 
ican gun-boat fell in with the fleet of Admiral Collingwood, 
off Cadiz. While her commander (Lieutenant Lawrence) was 
on board one of the British ships, three of his men were taken 
from his vessel by a boat sent for them, under the pretext that 
they were Englishmen. This outrage was committed by Lord 
Collingwood, while he admitted that " England would not sub- 
mit to such an aggression for one hour." This was only one of 
scores of similar outrages. 

The English cruisers even had the effrontery to carry on the 

5 



90 STORY OF THE UNITED STATES NAVY. 

offensive system at the entrances of American harbors. In the 
spring of 1806, while a small New York coasting vessel, Cap- 
tain Pearce, was running for Sandy Hook, she was fired into 
by the British cruiser Lcander, Captain Whitby, and the cap- 
tain of the little vessel was killed. This piratical act, this un- 
provoked murder, created the hottest indignation throughout 
the country. At a public meeting in New York, it was de- 
clared by resolution, presented by a committee of which Rufus 
King, late minister to England, was chairman, that an admin- 
istration that would suffer foreign armed ships to " impress, 
wound, and murder citizens," was " not entitled to the confi- 
dence of a brave and free people." Whitby was brought to 
trial in England for the murder of Pearce, but, notwithstand- 
ing the crime was fully proved by competent witnesses, he was 
honorably acquitted. The trial was a mockery of justice. The 
United States took prompt action on the subject, and sought 
to obtain justice through peaceful negotiations, but failed. 
The crime remained forever unpunished. 

Bonaparte had now become Emperor of the French, with 
the title of Napoleon I., and he and the British Government, 
throuo-h "orders in council" and "decrees," began to play a 
desperate foot-ball game with the commerce of the world. The 
citizens of the United States suffered great indignities and hard- 
ships from the acts of the gamesters. The British kept naval 
vessels continually hovering along the American coast. They 
entered American waters, and by their insolence and actual 
outrages produced great excitement in the public mind. They 
W'Cre reo-arded. as legalized plunderers, and no American mer- 
chant-vessel leaving port was safe from their depredations. A 
crisis was reached in the summer of 1807. 

A squadron of British vessels, watching some French frigates 
which were blockaded at Annapolis, lay in Lynn Haven Bay, 
just within the capes of Virginia. Three men of the Melampus 
deserted and enlisted on board the Chesainake at Washington, 



THE ''CHESAPEAKE' AND "LEOPARD. 



91 



which was then preparino- to join the Mediterranean squadron. 
The British minister at Washington made a formal request for 
their surrender. Inquiries concerning the deserters were made. 
Two of them were proved to be natives of the United States, and 
circumstances made it probable that the third also was born in 
America. The request of the minister was respectfully refused. 




YMN UA.VKN it AY. 



No more was done at that time ; but Vice-admiral Berkeley, on 
the Halifax station, under whose command was the squadron 
in Lynn Haven Bay, took the matter into his own hands, and 
instructed his subordinate, the commander in American w^aters, 
to assert the right of search and impressment whenever occa- 
sion should offer. 

Late in June, 1807, the Chesapeake, Captain Gordon, bearing 
the broad pennant of Commodore James Barron, put to sea. 
She had been watched by the squadron in Lynn Haven Bay, 



92 STORY OF THE UNITED STATES NAVY. 

and the Leopard, 50 guns, had been charged with the duty of 
intercepting her. The Leopard had preceded the Chesapeake 
to sea several miles, keeping in sight. Finally she bore down 
upon the Chesapeake, hailed her, and informed Barron that he 
had a despatch for him. The Chesapeake lay to, and it was 
soon discovered that the ports of the Leopard were triced up 
with an evident belligerent intention. 

A British lieutenant, who came to the Chesapeake in a boat, 
was politely invited on board by Barron, when he informed 
the captain that his errand was to search for deserters, and de- 
mand their release. Barron told him there w^as a standing or- 
der of his government to all commanders of American vessels 
not to allow their crews to be mustered by any one excepting 
their own officers, and that he should strictly enforce the or- 
der. The lieutenant then left, and the peci-"^ of the Chesapeake 
began to prepare for battle, for Barron suspected the British 
commander was bent on mischief. As Barron sailed away, he 
received this trumpet message from the commander of the Leop)- 
ard : "Commodore Barron must be aware that the orders of 
the vice-admiral must be obeyed." 

This was repeated, but Barron did not heed it. Then a shot 
was sent from the Leopard athwart the bows of the Chesapeake. 
Its warning was disregarded. This was speedily followed by 
another, and then the remainder of the broadside poured shot 
into the Chesapeake. Unprepared for an engagement, the 
Chesapeake was helpless ; still the Leojmrd fired several broad- 
sides, killing three men and wounding eighteen. Barron per- 
ceived that surrender would be necessary, but wished to fire a 
single gun, if no more, before he should haul down his flag. 
He was gratified ; Lieutenant Allen ran with a live coal be- 
tween his fingers and touched off one of the guns just as the 
colors were struck. 

British officers now boarded the Chesapeake, mustered the 
crew, and bore away four of them to the Leopard. The Chesa- 



A WAR SPIRIT AROUSED. 



93 



peake, which had been hulled by twenty-one round shot, sailed 
to Norfolk, The deserters, after trial at Halifax, were sentenced 
to be hanged. The three Americans were reprieved, on condi- 
tion that they should re-enter the British service ; the fourth 
man, who was an Englishman, was hanged. 




JAMKB JJ.VllUON. 



This outrage stirred the whole people of the Union with in- 
dignation. Party spirit almost disappeared for awhile, and 
with one voice the nation declared that Great Britain must 
make reparation for the wrong, or be made to feel the chastis- 
ing power of the lusty young Republic. A war spirit was 
manifested in all parts of the country ; and the President of 
the United States, by a proclamation, ordered all British armed 
vessels to leave the waters of the Republic immediately. 

Was there power back of that proclamation to enforce it? 



94 STORY OF THE UNITED STATES NAVY. 

No. The strong arm winch alone could thus assert the digni- 
ty and puissance of the nation — a competent navy — had been 
paralyzed by the operations of an unwise economy. The folly 
of hesitation in Congress and among the people in the creation 
of a strong navy was now conspicuous, and was keenly felt. 
The action of the British Government relieved that of the 
United States from its ridiculous position of a mere blusterer. 
It officially disowned the act of the commander of the Leopard^ 
recalled Berkeley, and censured the offending subaltern, and 
never sent him to sea again. Barron was tried on a charge of 
neglect of duty, found guilty, and punished by suspension from 
the service without pay for five years. So ended the tempest. 

Tills affair was an important lesson for the people and gov- 
ernment of the United States ; but the President and Congress, 
instead of applying it in the only practicable way, that of in- 
creasing the naval strength of the Republic, declared an unlim- 
ited embargo on foreign commerce. This act shut American 
ports against trade and traffic with other nations — a measure 
which injured the Americans themselves more than any one else. 

President Jefferson's policy was to keep the army and navy 
on as cheap a footing as possible. In the face of all the insults 
received, Congress had empowered the government to employ no 
more than 1425 seamen, ordinary seamen, and boys in all the 
vessels of the navy, in commission and in ordinary. The Sec- 
retary of the Navy now asked for nearly double that number. 
It was refused. The opposition to a navy in Congress came 
chiefly from the Southern members. Mr. AVilliams, of South 
Carolina, said : " I am at a loss to find terms sufficiently expres- 
sive of my abhorrence of a navy. I would go a great deal far- 
ther to see it burnt than to extinguish tlie fire. It is a curse 
to the country, and has never been anything else." 

In the face of the teachings of all history to the contrary, 
Mr. AVilliams declared that " navies have deceiv^ed the hopes 
of every country which has relied upon them." 



A GUN-BOAT FLEET. 



95 



But somewhat wiser counsels finally prevailed, and the Presi- 
dent was authorized to procure one hundred and eighty-eight 




gnn-boats in addition to some already built and a-building, 
making the whole number two hundred and fifty-seven. 



96 STORY OF THE UNITED STATES NAVY. 

The United States tlien bad a coast-line of almost two thou- 
sand miles, and this force of small vessels, fitted for harbor pro- 
tection only, bad really not the force of three large vessels of 
war as protectors of commerce or the national honor. Jeffer- 
son's idea seems to have been to have these boats in readiness, 
properly distributed, but not actually manned and put into 
commission until necessity should call for them. This pitiful 
gun-boat system was ridiculed without stint, and denounced as 
" wasteful imbecility, called by the name of economy." John 
Trumbull, the artist, gave the following description of its ex- 
pected operations : 

" Whenever danger shall menace any harbor, or any foreign 
ship shall insult us, somebody is to inform the governor, and 
the governor is to desire the marshal to call upon the captains 
of militia to call upon the drummers to beat to arms and call 
the militiamen together, from whom are to be drafted (not im- 
pressed) a sufficient number to go on board the gun-boats and 
drive the hostile stranger away, unless, during this long cere- 
monial, he should have taken himself off." 

No act was passed for increasing the power of the navy un- 
til the last of January, 1809, when the President, about to re- 
tire from office, was directed to equip the United States, 44 
guns ; President, 44 ; Essex, 32 ; and John Adams, 24 — the last- 
named vessel having been cut down to a sloop-of-war, from a 
frigate. The President was also authorized to employ a force 
of over five thousand seamen, ordinary seamen, and boys. 
These, with oflicers and the marine corps, raised the effective 
force of the navy to seven thousand men. The officers deserted 
the demoralizing service of the gun-boats for employment in 
better stations, and the high tone and admirable discipline, 
which had distinguished the United States Navy ten years 
before, was speedily renewed. 

The United States Government now turned its attention to 
the lakes on the northern frontier of the Republic. England 



THE "president" AND "LITTLE BELT." 97 

already possessed ships on Lakes Eric and Ontario ; and in 
1808 the President had directed two gun-boats to be built on 
Lake Champlain, and a regular war-brig on Lake Ontario, the 
latter of two hundred and forty tons measurement, and pierced 
for sixteen guns. 

For two years the policy of the two governments was vacil- 
lating and perplexing ; but that of the United States, under the 
wiser administration of President Madison, perceived that war 
with Great Britain might occur at almost any moment, for 
there was an increasing war spirit among the people. No more 
armed vessels were sent to the Mediterranean Sea, and the 
whole maritime force of the national government was kept at 
home. 

Li 1810 there were in active service twelve war vessels, 
namely : President^ 44 guns ; Constitution, 44 ; United States, 
44 ; Essex, 32 ; John Adains, 24 ; Wasp, 18 ; Hornet, 18 ; Ar- 
gils, 16 ; Siren, 16 ; Nautilus, 12 ; Enterprise, 12 ; and Vixen, 
12. Besides these, there were a large number of gun-boats, 
commanded chiefly by sailing masters selected from among 
oflflcers of merchant-vessels. 

Meanwhile the British had increased their cruisers on the 
American coast, and continued their offensive practices. In 
the spring of 1811 Commodore Rodgers, then at his home at 
Havre-de-Grace, was informed tliat a seaman had been taken 
out of an American brig, not far from Sandy Hook, by an 
English frigate, supposed to be the Guerriere, Captain Dacres. 
Rodgers hurried to Annapolis, whence he sailed in the President 
in search of the offender. On the 14th of May he discovered 
a sail which he supposed to be the one he was seeking, and 
gave cliase. At eight o'clock in the evening he was near 
enough to her to ask, 

"What sail is that?" 

No answer was returned, but the stranger repeated Rodgers's 
question word for word. Rodgers repeated it, and was answer- 
s' 



98 STOKY OF THE UNITED STATES NAVY. 

ed by a sliot that lodged in liis main-mast, followed first by 
three others, and then by the remainder of the broadside. 

Rodgers now opened a broadside npon his assailant, and in 
the course of a few minutes silenced her. He discovered his 
antagonist at dawn several miles distant, and bore down upon 
her to render assistance if required. She proved to be the 
British sloop -of -war Little Belt, 18 guns. Captain Bingham. 
The reports of Rodgers and Bingham were utterly contradic- 
tory, both as to which hailed first, fired first, in the length of 
the engagement, and the result ; Bingham claiming that he had 
gained the advantage in the contest. 

This affair produced almost as much excitement as that of 
the Chesapeake and Leopard. Disputes which arose concern- 
ing the matter were finally settled satisfactorily to both na- 
tions, and the topic dropped out of diplomatic circles. The 
affair, however, increased the growing ill feeling between the 
two nations. 

From this occurrence until the summer of 1812 the public 
ships were kept actively cruising along the American coast, or 
employed in carrying communications between their govern- 
ment and its ministers abroad. Navy-yards had been establish- 
ed at Philadelphia, New York, Boston, Washington, Gosport, and 
Portsmouth, N. H., and the navy had greatly improved in dis- 
cipline, tone, and efficiency. The continued violations of neu- 
tral rights for twelve years, by British cruisers, had created a 
chivalrous spirit in the navy that gave it activity and vigor 
when the two nations came to blows. 

At the beginning of the year 1812 the war spirit in the United 
States was at fever heat, and controlled a majority of the mem- 
bers of Congress. This spirit w\as fostered by continued ag- 
gressions on the part of the British, and by an able report of 
the Committee on Foreign Relations. But the President loved 
peace, and timidly hesitated to declare war. He was strongly 
pressed to do so ; and the more enlightened Langdon Cheves, 



A PLEA FOR A STRONG NAVY. 99 

of South Carolina, reported in favor of an increase of the navy, 
for he justly said, "Protection to commerce is protection to 
agriculture." Members from commercial New England, es- 
pecially from Massachusetts, favored such increase of the na- 
val force. Lloyd, from that State, moved an appropriation for 
building thirty frigates, and sustained his resolution by an elo- 
quent speech. 

" Let us have the frigates," he said. " Powerful as Great 
Britain is, she could not blockade them. Divide them into six 
squadrons. Place these squadrons in northern ports ready for 
sea, and at favorable moments we would pounce upon her West 
India islands, repeating the game of D'Estaing and De Grasse. 
By the time she was ready to meet us there, we would be 
around Cape Horn cutting up her whalemen. Pursued thither, 
we would skim away to the Lidian seas, and would give an ac- 
count of her China and Lidia ships very different from that of 
the French cruisers. Now we would follow her Quebec, now 
her Jamaica convoys ; sometimes make an appearance in the 
chops of the Channel, and even sometimes wind north almost 
to the Baltic. It would require a hundred British frigates to 
watch the movements of these thirty. Such are the means by 
which I would bring Great Britain to her senses. By harass- 
ing her commerce with this fleet, we would make the people 
ask their government why they continued to violate our rights." 

These patriotic utterances, and the glowing picture of this 
day-dream, did not convince Congress — made up as it was most- 
ly of members from agricultural States — that a strong navy was 
necessary. That body, willing to rush into war with a power- 
erful maritime nation, not only refused to sanction Lloyd's 
amendment, but actually cut down a petty appropriation for 
the repairs of vessels then afloat. 

At the close of March, 1S12, Congress authorized the Presi- 
dent to cause three additional frigates to be put in service, 
and appropriated $200,000 for the purchase of timber to re- 



100' STORT OF THE UNITEJ) STATES NAVY. 

build the tlirce otlier frigates which had been permitted to 
fall into decay. At the same time preparations for war on 
land were authorized and pressed forward; and on the 19th 
of June, 1812, President Madison declared war against Great 
Britain by a formal proclamation. 

At that time the navy of Great Britain consisted of 1060 
sail, of which nearly 800 were efficient cruisers — a large por- 
tion of them at liberty to roam the sea wherever required. 
The United States Navy at that time was composed of 20 ves- 
sels (exclusive of 120 gun-boats), the larger one a frigate of 44 
guns, and the smaller one a schooner of 12 guns. There were 
three of 44 guns, three of 38, one of 36, one of 32, three of 
28, two of 18, three of 16, three of 14, and one of 12. Of 
these vessels two (of 36 and 28 guns) were unseaworthy, and 
a 16-gun vessel was on Lake Ontario. 

With seventeen war-vessels and merchantmen, spread over 
nearly the whole ocean regions of the earth, the United States 
then entered upon war with the most powerful maritime na- 
tion the world had ever seen. Besides, Great Britain possess- 
ed large West India islands, the Bermudas, and the port of 
Halifax as places for refitting and shelters for prizes. 

The apparent foolhardiness of the United States in enter- 
ing upon a war with so great a stake of shipping, and with a 
protection so inadequate, can be accounted for only by the fact 
that the Cabinet at Washington entertained a project of laying 
up all tlie vessels in ordinary to prevent their falling into the 
hands of their foes ! This contemplated death-blow to the 
navy was averted by the strong remonstrances and cogent ar- 
guments of Captains Bainbridge and Stewart in opposition to 
this suicidal plan. The President, in calling a meeting of his 
Cabinet, found that two of them had receded from their foolish 
recommendation, on the ground that the ships would soon be 
captured in port by the British, and that the country would 
thus be rid of the cost of maintainino- them, and more at lib- 



INDECOROUS LANGUAGE AND VALIANT DEEDS. 101 

erty to direct its energies to the army ! Fortunately the Pres- 
ident Ustened to better counsellors. 

The British Government and people, and the younger mem- 
bers of the British Navy, had such notions of the overwhelm- 
ing superiority of the British to the Americans in all things, 
that they laughed in derision at our declaration of war. Their 
newspapers, in particular, indulged in broadest ridicule and 
coarsest abuse of the Americans. They had declared that they 
were " spaniel-like in character : the more they are chastised, 
the more obsequious they become." They declared that they 
"could not be kicked into a war ;" and the frigate Constitution, 
which had performed great achievements already, was spoken 
of as " a bundle of pine boards sailing under a bit of striped 
bunting." And it was asserted that " a few broadsides from 
England's wooden walls would drive the paltry striped bunting 
from the ocean." This indecorous language was soon answer- 
ed by valiant deeds by the Americans that made the British 
Government and writers more thoughtful and circumspect. 

The little American Navy was prompt to act when allowed 
its freedom. When war was declared, there were collected in 
the port of New York, under Commodore Rodgers, the Presi- 
dent, 44 guns (flag-ship) ; Essex, 32, Captain Porter; and Hor- 
net, 18, Captain Lawrence. They were ready to sail at a mo- 
ment's notice. Within one hour after Rodgers received official 
information of the declaration of war, and his instructions, 
he was under way with his squadron in search of a large fleet 
of Jamaica-men, known to be off the American coast, in the 
Gulf-stream. 

On June 23d Rodgers saw a British frigate. The President 
sailed faster than the rest of the squadron, and, giving chase, 
gained on the stranger. When near enough, Rodgers sent the 
contents of a chase-^un after her with deadly effect. This was 
about four o'clock in the afternoon. Rodgers had pointed and 
fired the gun himself, and this was the first hostile shot fired 



102 STORY OF THE UNITED STATES NAVY. 

afloat in the war of 1812. After a spirited engagement at long 
range, the stranger was liglitened, outran the President, and 
escaped. She was the Belv'idera, 36 guns, Captain Byron. She 
carried the news of the declaration of war to Halifax. The 
President had twenty-two men killed and wounded, sixteen of 
them by the bursting of a gun. The squadron continued the 
cruise to the chops of the English Channel, capturing some 
merchantmen, and returned after an absence of seventy days. 

As soon as the startling report of the Belvidera reached 
Halifax, a British squadron was collected there, and placed un- 
der the command of Captain Broke, of the Shannon, 38 guns. 
It consisted of the flag-ship African, 64 guns; Gaerriere, 38; 
Belvidera, 36 ; and ^olus, 32. It appeared off New York 
city in July, and captured several prizes. Just at that time the 
little brig Nautilus, 14 guns, Lieutenant -commander Crane, 
sailed out of New York on a cruise, and the next day she was 
captured by the Shannon. This was the first vessel taken on 
either side in the war then just begun. She had done good 
service in the war with Tripoli (see Chapter VII). 

Now we enter upon a most important part of our story. It 
is the time of the beginning of the war of 1812, or second war 
for independence — a war in which the navy of the United 
States suddenly and unexpectedly acquired great renown, and 
the commanders in it, who became conspicuous heroes, won for 
themselves imperishable fame. 



A KEMAEKABLm NAVAL KETKEAT. 103 



CHAPTER IX. 

Just at the time when the Nautilus was captured, the Con- 
stitution, 44 guns, Captain Isaac Hull, returned from Europe. 
He ran into Cliesapeake Bay and shipped a fresh crew at An- 
napolis, whence he sailed (July 12th, 1812) on a cruise north- 
ward. When five days out, moving under easy canvas before 
a gentle breeze, and out of sight of land, Hull discovered several 
vessels heading westward. They were evidently watching the 
Constitution. Hull beat to quarters, prepared his ship for ac- 
tion, and bore down toward a frigate to speak to her. They 
sailed in sight of each other all night. 

In the gray of early morning Hull discovered that the frigate 
was the Guerriere, Captain Dacres, accompanied by three other 
vessels on her starboard quarter, and four astern. Hull had 
fallen in with Broke's squadron. Perceiving his peril, he 
sought safety in flight, and now began one of the most re- 
markable naval retreats on record. The Constitution was in 
great peril. There was almost a dead calm, and the staunch 
ship floated quite independent of the helm on the gently-heav- 
ing bosom of the sea. Down went her boats with long lines 
attached to them, and strong sweeps were used with desperate 
energy in towing her. A long 18-pounder was placed on her 
spar-deck as a stern-chaser, and another was pointed off her 
forecastle. Her cabin windows were enlarged by saws and 
axes, and out of these were run two 24 -pounders. A light 
breeze was just beginning to swell her sails, when the Shan- 
non, Broke's flag -ship, opened her ports and cannonaded the 



104 STORY OF THE UNITED STATES NAVY. 

Constitution for ten minutes with her bow guns. They were 
harmless. 

Again the breeze died away. Finding the water only twen- 
ty fathoms in depth, Hull ordered a hedge -anchor, attached 
to ropes spliced together, to be carried half a mile ahead and 
dropped, when the crew pulled the ship rapidly forward. This 
movement was repeated several times, and puzzled the pursuers. 

Broke soon discovered the secret of the progress of the Con- 
stitution, and adopted the same expedient. Toward midnight 
the Shannon and Guerriere w^ere rapidly gaining on the fugi- 
tive, when a light breeze struck the Constitution and brought 
her to windward. AVith consummate skill Hull took advan- 
tage of the breeze and bore way ; but a calm soon succeeded, 
the Guerriere drew nearer, and finally opened a harmless broad- 
side. So anxious was Broke to get the Shannon within fight- 
ing distance, that nearly all the boats of the squadron were 
employed in towing her. So the race continued a day and a 
night, both parties towing and hedging. 

At dawn, on the second day of the chase, there was a light 
breeze, and all the ships were on the same tack. The pursu- 
ing vessels were clouded with canvass from truck to deck, and 
the English frigates got within gun-shot range of the Constitu- 
tion on her lee-quarter. Eleven vessels w-ere now in sight. It 
was an imposing scene, beautiful and exciting. With that 
gentle breeze the Constitution gained on her pursuers, and at 
four o'clock in the afternoon was four miles ahead of the near- 
est. At seven, dark clouds began to brood over the sea, and 
very soon a tempest of wind, lightning, and rain swept over 
its bosom. The Constitution was unharmed, for she had been 
well prepared ^r a squall. When the gale ceased she was fly- 
ing before a stiff breeze at the rate of eleven knots an hour. 

At twilight the storm had passed to the eastward, and the 
pursuing vessels were again in sight. On went the Constitu- 
tion before the wind. All tbat night the race continued, but 




Ill /A 



FIRST CRUISE OF THE "ESSEX." lOV 

at eiglit o'clock the next morning the pursuers gave up the 
chase. So ended a contesting trial of seamanship, after a chase 
of sixty-four hours, chiefly off the coast of New England. This 
exploit gave Hull much fame as an expert sailor. When the 
Constitution had gained other victories, a rhymer, recounting 
her exploits in many verses, thus sung of this event : 

" 'Xeath HulFs command, with a tough band, 

And naught beside to back her. 
Before a day, as log-books say, 

A fleet bore down to thwack her. 
A fleet, you know, is odds or so 

Against a single ship, sirs ; 
So 'cross the tide her legs she tried. 

And gave the rogues the slip, sirs." 

Soon after Rodgers left New York (sec page 101) the Essex, 32 
guns, Captain Porter, sailed from that harbor with a flag bear- 
ing the significant words, " Free Trade and Sailor's Rights " 
fluttering at her mast-head. Soon after leaving Sandy Hook, 
Porter captured and burnt several English merchant -vesgels, 
making prisoners of their crews. For some weeks he cruised 
southward in disguise, captured a prize occasionally, and, turn- 
ing northward, chased a fleet of British transports convoyed by 
an armed frigate, and captured one of them, with one hundred 
and fifty men, without firing a gun. 

A few days later (August 13th, 1812), while sailing in the 
disguise of a merchantman, the Essex fell in with a sail which 
came bearing down upon her. The Essex showed an Ameri- 
can ensign, and kept away, pretending to avoid a contest. The 
English vessel followed her, ran down on her weather-quarter, 
set British colors, and, with three cheers from her people, open- 
ed fire. In an instant the ports of the Essex were opened, 
and a terrible response was made to the stranger's challenge. 
She was the Alert, 20 guns. Captain Laugharne. She was so 
surprised that, after receiving one or two discharges, her .crew 



108 STORY OF THE UNITED STATES NAVY. 

deserted their quarters and ran below. In eight minutes after 
the Essex opened her ports the colors of the Alert were struck. 
She was the first vessel of war taken from the British in the 
contest of 1812-15. 

The Essex was now crowded with prisoners, who conspired 
to rise and seize the vessel. Porter converted the Alert into 
a cartel ship (a vessel employed in the exchange of prison- 
ers), and sent her with the captives for exchange to St. John. 
Several of them were executed there for deserting their posts 
in the panic on the Alert. The Essex sailed to the Delaware, 
for Captain Porter believed he was cut oS from New York and 
Boston by British squadrons. 

The Constitution, soon after her exciting experience with 
Broke's squadron, sailed /rom Boston (August 2d), under Cap- 
tain Hull, in quest of the Guerriere, whose commander. Captain 
Dacres, had boastfully enjoined the Americans to remember 
that she was not the Little Belt, and this offensive form of 
menace increased Hull's desire to meet her and measure 
strength with her. Of her it was written : 

" Long the tyrant of our coast 

Reigned the famous Guerriere ; 
Our little navy she defied, 

Public ship and privateer ; 
On her sails, in letters red, 

To our captains were displayed 
Words of warning, words of dread — 

' All who meet me have a care ; 

I am England's Guerriere.'' " 

The Constitution cruised southward of Cape Sable, and east- 
ward of Halifax, but found no prey. Then Hull sailed around 
Nova Scotia to the Gulf of St. Lawrence, where he captured a 
few prizes. The harvest promised too little to detain him, and 
he sailed southward. On the 19th of August he was delighted 
with the sight of a vessel, which proved to be a British frigate. 



THE "constitution" AND " GUEREIERE. 



109 



and when he was within a league of her he prepared for action, 
and saw that she was willing to fight. Hull bore down upon 
her, intending to bring on an engagement at close quarters. 




ISAAC IinLT.. 



The stranger ran up three British ensigns, ai/d fired two 
broadsides in quick succession. The shot fell short. For 
three-quarters of an hour she manoeuvred to get a position to 
rake the Constitution ; but failing, she bore up and ran under 
top-sails and jib, the wind on the quarter. It was evident that 
the stranger was ready to engage in a yard-arm and yard-arm 
combat, and Hull pressed sail to lay the Constitution along-side 
of his antagonist, which he now found was the Guerriere, 44 
guns, which he had been seeking. As the shot of the latter 
began to make havoc in the Constitution, Lieutenant Morris, 
Hull's second in command, asked Dcrmission to open fire. 

" Not yet," quietly answered the commander. 



110 STORY OF THE UNITED STATES NAVY. 

Hull was fat, and wore very tight breeches. He had been 
walking the quarter-deck, keenly watching every movement. 
The request was repeated. 

" Not yet !" Hull again answered. 

A moment afterward, when the bows of the Constitution 
began to double the quarter of the Guerriere, Hull, filled with 
sudden and intense excitement, bent himself twice to the deck, 
and then shouted, 

" Now, boys, pour it into them !" 

This command was instantly obeyed. The Constitution 
opened her forward guns, which were double - shotted with 
round and grape, with terrible effect. "When the smoke cleared 
away it was discovered that the commander had split his tight 
breeches from waistband to knee ; but he did not stop to 
change them during the action. 

The concussion of HulTs broadside cast the wounded in the 
cockpit of the Guerriere from one side of the room to the 
other. At the same time, terrible broadsides were lacerating 
the Constitution fearfully. The frigates were only half pistol- 
shot distance from each other. The excitement on board both 
vessels was intense. 

" Hull her ! Hull her !" shouted Morris. 

" Hull her ! Hull her !" shouted the crew in response, for 
they instantly comprehended the pun. 

Within fifteen minutes after the action began, the Guerriere' s 
mizzen-mast was shot away, her main-yard was gone in the 
slings, and her hull, spars, sails, and rigging were torn in pieces. 
As her mizzen-mast gave way the Guerriere brought up in the 
wind, when the Constitution passed slowly ahead, poured in a 
tremendous fire as her guns bore, luffed short round the bows 
of her antagonist to prevent being raked, and, being taken 
aback, fell foul of her. 

Both parties now attempted to board. The fierce volleys of 
musketry and the heavy sea that was rolling made that move- 



SUERENDEP. OP THE " GUERRIERE." Ill 

ment impossible. All hands on the Gaerriere had been piped 
from below, and mustered on tlie forecastle for the purpose ; 
and Lieutenant Morris, Alwyn the master, and Lieutenant Bush 
of the marines, of the Constitution^ sprung upon her taffrail 
to lead their men to the work. The first two were wounded, 
and the third was killed. Just then the wind filled the sails 
of the Constitution, and as she shot ahead and clear of her 
antagonist, the fore-mast of which liad been severely bruised, 
that mast fell, carrying with it the main-mast, and leaving the 
sorely crippled vessel a shivering, shorn, and helpless wreck, 
rolling like a log in the trough of the sea. 

Then the Constitution, which had hauled off to secure her 
own masts, took a position at about sunset for raking the 
wreck. A jack had been kept flying on the stump of the Guer- 
riere's mizzen-mast. It was now pulled down, and third Lieu- 
tenant Read was sent on board the prize. When Dacres, her 
commander, appeared. Read said : 

"Commodore Hull's compliments, and wishes to know if 
you have struck your flag ?" 

Dacres, looking up and down, coolly and dryly remarked, 

"Well, I don't know; our mizzen-mast is gone, our main- 
mast is gone, and, upon the whole, you may say we have struck 
our flag !" 

Read then inquired if the vanquished needed the assistance 
of a surgeon or surgeon's mate? Dacres replied, 

" Well, I should suppose you had on board your own ship 
business enough for all your medical oflScers." 

Read replied, " Oh no ; we have only seven wounded, and 
they were dressed half an hour ago." 

Professor Symington, in his biographical sketch of Samuel 
Lover, relates the following anecdote, told to Lover in Amer- 
ica: 

" Captains Hull and Dacres were personal acquaintances be- 
fore the war — their ships happening to be together in the Del- 



112 



STORY OF THE UNITED STATES NAVY. 



aware. The captains met at a party, and had some conversation 
in regard to the merits of their respective navies. Hull was 




HULL S MEDAL. 



lively and good-hmnorcd. When they spoke of what would hap- 
pen if, in event of ^var, they should come in colUsion, null said, 



HULL HONORED. 115 

" ' Take care of that ship of yours, if ever I catch her in the 
Constitution /' 

" Dacres laughed, and offered a handsome bet that, if ever they 
did meet as antagonists, his friend would find out his mistake. 

" Hull refused a money wager, but ventured to stake on the 
issue — a hat. Years after this the conjectured encounter did 
occur; and when, after a desperate fight in which the English 
frigate became a wreck upon the water. Captain Dacres came 
on board the Constitution and offered his sword to Hull, who 
was waiting to shake hands with him, 

" 'No, no,' said Hull, ' I will not take a sword from one who 
knows so well how to use it, but I'll trouble you for that hatP " 

The prisoners and their effects were removed from the Guer- 
riere. She was too much damaged to be saved, and she was 
set on fire. Fifteen minutes afterward she blew up. The Con- 
stitution arrived at Boston on the 30th of August : the action 
had occurred in latitude about 41° North, and longitude 55° 
West. Hull was the first to announce his victory. The news 
was received with demonstrations of great joy in every part of 
the Republic. Men of all ranks hastened to honor the con- 
queror. An immense assemblage of the citizens of Boston es- 
corted him from his landing-place to his lodgings. From al- 
most every window ladies waved their white handkerchiefs, and 
shout after shout greeted the hero. A splendid entertainment 
was given him and his officers by the inhabitants of Boston, 
and almost six hundred citizens sat down to a banquet in his 
honor. 

The freedom of the city of New York, in a gold box, was 
given to Hull by the corporation^ and the citizens presented 

^ The " freedom " of a city is an honorary privilege bestowed as a com- 
pliment to a meritorious person. While it does not make a stranger or 
an alien a citizen, it allows him the political privileges of one by courtesy. 
Captain Hull was the first American naval commander who received that 
honor. The freedom of a city is usually given in a certificate signed by the 



116 STORY OF THE UNITED STATES NAVY. 

swords to him and his officers. Congress thanked him in the 
name of the nation, and awarded him a gold medal ; and 
$50,000 were distributed by the government among the officers 
and crew of the Constitution, as prize-money. By request of 
the Corporation of New York, Hull sat for his portrait, to be 



GENEFvAI. HKOWN S GOI>l) BOX. 

hung in the City Hall ; and the newspapers teemed with praises 

of American valor on the sea, in essays, songs, and epigrams. 

In a very popular old song, sung for many years after the war, 

occur the following lines : 

" Quick as lightning, and fatal as its dreaded power, 
Destruction and death on the Gmrriere did shower, 
While the groans of the dying were heard on the blast, 
The word was, ' Take aim, boys, away with her mast !' 

Mayor, and impressed with the corporation seal. It is usually conveyed 
to the recipient in a gold box. Major-general Jacob Brown received the 
" freedom of the city " of New York in a gold box, the first American 
army officer so honored. It was given to him early in the year 1815. 
The gold box in which it was presented is delineated in the engraving. 
It is of fine gold, elliptical in form, three inches in length, two and a half 
in width, and three-fourths of an inch in depth, the lid suitably inscribed 
on the under-side. 



TONE OF THE BRITISH PRESS. 117 

The genius of Britain will long rue the day — 
The Guerriere's a wreck in the trough of the sea ; 
Her laurels are withered, her boasting is done ; 
Submissive, to leeward, she tires her last gun." 

Hull's victory was of great importance to the Americans. 
It gave them confidence, and dispelled the idea of the absolute 
omnipotence of the British Navy that prevailed on both sides 
of the Atlantic. It silenced all opposition to a navy, in Con- 




JAMKS DAOllES. 



gress and among the people. The British Government and 
British writers were astounded. It is amusing to notice the 
altered tone of the British Press. The very writers who de- 
scribed the Constitution as "a bundle of pine boards" now de- 
clared that she was one of the staunchest vessels afloat. The 
Guerriere, which was to " drive the insolent striped bunting 



118 STORY OF THE UNITED STATES NAVY. 

from the seas," was now spoken of as " an old worn-out frigate 
on her way to Halifax for repairs." The London Times, then 
as during our late Civil War a sneering enemy of the United 
States, was constrained to say : 

" We have been accused of sentiments unworthy of Englisli- 
men, because we described what we saw and felt on the occa- 
sion of the capture of the Guerriere. We witnessed the gloom 
Avhich that event cast over high and honorable minds ; we par- 
ticipated in the vexation and regret ; and it is the first time we 
have ever heard that the striking of the English flag on the 
high seas to anything like an equal force should be regarded 
by Englishmen with complacency and satisfaction. * * * It is 
not merely that an English frigate has been taken, after what, 
we are free to confess, may be called a brave resistance, but 
that it has been taken b}" a new enemy, an enemy unaccustom- 
ed to such triumphs, and likely to he rendered insolent and con- 
fident hy them. 

" He must be a weak politician who does not see how im- 
portant the first triumph is in giving a tone and character to 
the war. Never before in the history of the world did an Eng- 
lish frigate strike to an American; and though we cannot say 
that Captain Dacres, under all circumstances, is punishable for 
this act, yet we do say that there are commanders in the Eng- 
lish Navy who would a thousand times rather have gone down 
with their colors flying than have set their brother officers so 
fatal an example." 

In this action, the Constitution, rated at 38, actually carried 
56 guns ; the Guerriere, rated at 44, carried 49 guns. The 
Constitution was undoubtedly the staunchest vessel of the two. 
Her loss of men was small compared with that of the Guerriere. 
Her spars and rigging were severely wounded ; the Guerriere 
was made a perfect wreck. ^ 

^ Isaac Hull served in the United States Navy, afloat and ashore, thirty- 



CRUISE OF THE '' WASP. 



119 



The sloop-of-vvar Wasj), 18 guns, Captain Jacob Jones, was 
one of the fastest sailers of her chiss in the service. She was 
on her way home from Europe as bearer of despatches from 
diplomatic representatives of the United States abroad when 




HULL'S MONUilKIs'T. 



war was declared. In the veins of her commander ran much 
indomitable Welsh blood. 

The Wasp left the Delaware at near the middle of October, 
1812, with about 135 men, and sailed for the track of vessels 
steering north from the West Indies. On the 16th she en- 
countered a heavy gale, and the next day her watch discovered 
several vessels. All that night Captain Jones sailed parallel 
with the strangers, and at dawn gave chase. They were a fleet 
of armed merchant-vessels, under the protection of the British 
war schooner Frolic, carrying twenty guns, Captain T. Whin- 



seven years, with the rank of captain, having received that appointment in 
1806. He died at the age of sixty-eight years. His remains rest in Lau- 
rel Hill Cemetery, near Philadelphia, and over them is a beautiful white 
marble altar-tomb. 



120 STORY OF THE UNITED STATES NAVY. 

yates commander. Four of the six mercliantmen convoyed by 
the Frolic mounted from 16 to 18 guns each. 

As Jones drew near he perceived that the British schooner was 
disposed to fight, and was preparing to allow the merchantmen 
to escape during the engagement. The Wasp was immediately 
brought under short fighting canvas. The Frolic also carried 
very little sail, and in this condition they began a severe battle, 
while the sea was rolling heavily under a stiffening breeze. The 




JACOB JONi:S. 



Frolic fired rapidly — three guns to the Wasp^s two. Within 
five minutes after the combat began the top-mast of the Wasp 
was shot away. It fell with the main-topsail yard, and lodged 
so as to make the head-yards unmanageable during the rest of the 
action. Three minutes later her gaft and main-topgallant-mast 
was shot away, and very soon her condition seemed hopeless. 
Meanwhile the Frolic had been more seriously injured in her 



FIGHT BETWEEN THE " WASP " AND " FROLIC. ' 121 

hull. She had fired from the crest of the wave ; the Wasp 
from the trough of the sea, and sent her missiles through the 
hull of her antagonist with destructive effect. The vessels 
gradually approached each other, and finally ran foul, the bow- 
sprit of the Frolic passing in over the quarter-deck of the 
Wasp, and forcing her bows up in the wind. This position 
enabled the latter to throw in a close raking broadside with 
most destructive effect. 

The crew of the Wasp, greatly excited, could no longer be 
restrained. With wild shouts they leaped into the tangled 
rigging and made their way to the deck of the Frolic just as 
Jones poured in another terrible broadside. There was no one 
to oppose them, for the last broadside had swept nearly every 
man from the decks of the Frolic, and carried dismay to the 
hearts of the surviving crew. All who were able had rushed 
below to escape the raking fire of the Wasj^, excepting an old 
sailor who had kept his place at the wheel during the terrible 
encounter. 

A few surviving oflScers were standing on the quarter-deck 
of the Frolic, most of them wounded. They threw down their 
swords in token of submission, when Lieutenant Biddle, who 
led the boarding party, pulled down the British flag with his 
own hands. Not twenty persons on board the captive w^ere un- 
harmed ; a greater part of her men were killed or wounded. 

When the two vessels separated, both masts of the Frolic 
fell, and, with tattered sails and broken rigging, covered the 
dead with which her decks were strewn. Lieutenant Biddle 
was placed in charge of the prize, and the vessels were about 
parting company, when the British ship-of-war Poictiers, 74 
guns. Captain Beresford, appeared on the scene. Two hours 
after Jones had achieved his victory, his crippled vessel, and 
more crippled prize, were recaptured by the Poictiers. 

Again there was great exultation in the United States when 
news of this action was received. This victory was won in a 

6* 



122 



STORY OF THE UNITED STATES NAVY. 



fio-ht between equal forces. The Press lauded Jones. Brilliant 
entertainments were given him. The Legislature of his native 




JONES B MEDAL. 



State (Delaware) voted him thanks, a sword, and a piece of sil- 
ver plate. The Corporation of New York City voted him a 



WASP AND ''FROLIC ' CARICATURED. 



123 



sword and tlie freedom of the city. Congress gave him the 
thanks of the nation and a gold medal, and appropriated 
$25,000 to Jones and his companions as a compensation for 
the loss of their prize by recapture. A stirring song, commem- 
orative of the event, was sung everywhere at public gatherings, 
and by boys in the streets. I here give a single stanza : 

" The foe bravely fought, but his arms were all broken, 

And he fled from his death-wound, aghast and aif righted ; 
But the Wasp darted forward her death-doing sting, 

And full on his bosom, like lightning, alighted. 
She pierced through his entrails, she maddened his brain. 

And he writhed and he groaned as if torn with the colic; 
And long shall John Bull rue the terrible day 

He met the American W<xsp on a FroUcy 



["•/t often fiearc/^yourMliaspsancL 
dCarncts butUltle Uiou^Mcucn diTninutii/e ) 
\hsccLs CouL U^L i/emc Such a Sl'uwU/ 




A WASl» ON A FROLIC. 



Caricature and satire was pressed into the service of history. 
A caricature entitled "A Wasp on a Frolic; or, a Sting for 



124 



STORY OF THE UNITED STATES NAVY. 



John Bull," was sent forth by Charles, of Philadelphia. It 
represented John as a rotund Englishman, upon whose person 
a huge wasp had alighted, and thrust his sting through the ab- 
domen of the sturdy Bull. Beneath the picture w^ere the lines: 

"A Wasp took a Frolic, and met Johnny Bull, 
Who always fights best when his belly is full. 
The Wasp thought him hungry, by his mouth open wide, 
So, his belly to fill, put a sting through his side." 

Biddle shared in the honors of the victory. The Legislature 
of Pennsylvania voted him a sword, and leading citizens of 
Philadelphia presented him with a silver urn, w'ith appropriate 
delineations and inscription. 




TUB UIDDLE UEN. 



IIODGERS S SECOND CRUISE. 125 



CHAPTER X. 

Precisely a week after the victoiy was won by the Wasp, 
another more important was achieved. At the middle of Oc- 
tober (1812) Commodore Rodgers sailed from Boston on a 
second cruise. His flag-ship was the President, 44 guns, ac- 
companied by the United States, 44, Captain Stephen Decatur, 
and Argus, 16, Lieutenant-commanding St. Clair. These ves- 
sels soon parted company, the United States sailing southward 
and eastward, hoping to intercept British West Indiamen. At 
dawn on Sunday morning (October 25th), near the Island of 
Madeira, the watch at the main-top discovered a sail. There 
was a stiff breeze and heavy sea at the time. The vessel was 
an English man-of-war under a heavy press of sail, and Decatur 
resolved to overtake and fight her. 

The United States was a good sailer, and gained rapidly on 
the vessel she was pursuing. Her officers and men were full 
of enthusiasm ; and, as their ship drew nigh the British vessel, 
shouts went up from their deck that were heard on board the 
one pursued before the two were near enough to bring guns to 
bear upon each other. 

At about nine o'clock in the morning Decatur opened a 
broadside upon the British ship, but his balls fell short. Press- 
ing sail, he was soon so near that a second broadside from the 
United States took effect. Both vessels were on the same tack, 
and now fought desperately with long guns, the distance be- 
ing so great that carronades^ and muskets were of no avail. 

' A carronade is a kind of short gun which is attached to its carriage by 
a pivot and bolt underneath the piece instead of trunnions. The name is 
derived from Carron, a village in Stirlingshire, Scotland, where this gun was 
first made. 



126 STOKY OF THE UNITED STATES NAVY. 

The shot of the United States told fearfully on her antago- 
nist, and the latter soon perceived that her safety from utter 
destruction could be found only in close quarters. So, when 
the contest had lasted half an hour, riddled and torn in hull 
and rigging, she bore up gallantly for close action. Very soon 
the shot of the United States cut her antagonist's niizzen-mast, 
and it fell overboard. Presently her main-yard was seen hang- 
ing in two pieces ; her main and foretop-masts were gone ; her 
fore-mast was tottering, and no colors were seen flying. Her 
main-mast and bowsprit were also badly shattered. 

The United States was yet unhurt; and Decatur, gather- 
ing fresh way, tacked and came up under the lee of the Eng- 
lish ship, whose commander was astounded by the movement. 
AVhen the American frigate bore away, he supposed she was 
seriously injured and was about to fly. The blaze of her can- 
non had been so incessant that, seen through the smoke, the 
English commander thought she was on fire. With this im- 
pression her crew gave three clieers; but when the United 
States tacked and came up in a position to do more serious 
work, the British commander, perceiving the futility of further 
resistance, struck his colors and surrendered. As the United 
States crossed the stern of the vanquished ship, Decatur called 
through his trumpet, 

" What is the name of your ship ?" 

" His Majesty's frigate Macedonian,'''' responded her captain, 
J. S. Garden. 

The Macedonian was terribly bruised and cut up. She had 
nothing standing but her fore and main masts and fore-yard. 
All her boats but one had been shattered into uselessness. Of 
her three hundred men, officers and crew, many were killed and 
wounded. She had received no less than one hundred round shot 
in her hull, many of them between wind and water. The Mace- 
donian was a new ship, and a very fine vessel of her class, rated at 
36, but carrying 49 guns. A contemporary American poet wrote: 



DECATUR AND HIS PRIZE. 127 

" Bold Garden thought he had us tight, 

Just so did Dacres too, sirs. 
But brave Decatur put him right, 

With Yankee-doodle-doo, sirs. 
They thought they saw our ship in flame, 

Which made them all huzza, sirs. 
But when the second broadside came. 

It made them hold their jaws, sirs." 

The Uydted States was heavier in men and metal than the 
Macedonian. Decatur abandoned his cruise, and took his own 
vessel and his prize to New England. The United States went 
into the harbor of New London on the 4th of December, and 
the Macedonian into Newport harbor at about the same time, in 
charge of Lieutenant Allen. A newspaper writer, inspired by 
the event, broke out in a song of many verses similar in spirit 

to tills : 

" Then quickly met our nation's eyes 
The noblest sight in Nature — 
A first-rate frigate as a prize 

Brought home by brave Decatur." 

Both vessels soon afterward sailed for the harbor of New 
York, where the Macedonian was first anchored on New-year's- 
day, 1813. "She comes," said one of the city newspapers, 
" with the compliments of the season from old Neptune." A 
splendid banquet had just been given in New York to Hull, 
Jones, and Decatur, and the air of the whole Union was filled 
with the joint and separate praises of this trio of heroes. J. 
R. Calvert wrote a banquet song which was sung on that oc- 
casion. It became immensely popular, and closed with the fol- 
lowing stanza : 

" Now charge all your glasses with pure sparkling wine. 
And toast our brave tars who so bravely defend us ; 
While our naval commanders so nobly combine. 
We defy all the ills haughty foes e'er can send us. 



128 STORY OF THE UNITED STATES NAVY. 

While our goblets do flow, 

The praises we owe 
To valor and skill, we will gladly bestow. 
And may grateful the sons of Columbia be 
To Decatur, whom Neptune crowns Lord of the Sea^ 

Decatur's victory produced a profound impression in the 
United States and England ; in the former, of exultation and 
hope, and in the latter, of disappointment and unpleasant fore- 
bodino's. Public bodies and Leo-ishitures in the United States 
gave Decatur thanks and swords. The Corporation of New 
York gave him the " freedom of the city," and requested his 
portrait for the picture-gallery in the City Hall, where it still 
hangs. Congress thanked him, and gave him a gold medah 

Hull had generously retired from the command of the Con- 
stitution, for the purpose of allowing some brother officer an 
opportunity for gallant achievements in her. Captain Bain- 
bridge was appointed his successor, and placed in charge of 
her, w^itli the Essex, 32 guns, and Hornet, 18. The Essex, Cap- 
tain Porter, was in the Delaware ; the Constitution and Hornet 
were at Boston. Bainbridge sent orders to Porter to cruise in 
the track of the English West Indiamen, and to rendezvous or 
meet at certain ports, which he named, at a specified time ; 
when, if he did not fall in with the squadron, to use his own 
discretion as to his course. AVitli this sort of roving commis- 
sion, Porter sailed on the long and wonderful cruise which will 
be noticed presently. 

Bainbridge sailed from Boston, with the Constitution and 
Hornet, late in October (1812), and arrived off Bahia, or San 
Salvador, Brazil, at about the middle of December. Master- 
commander Lawrence, wdio had charge of the Hornet, was sent 
into the port to communicate with the American consul there, 
and discovered the English sloop-of-war Bonne Citoijenne, 18 
guns, Captain Green, lying in the harbor. Lawrence invited 
Green to go out on the open sea and fight, promising that the 



THE "constitution" ON THE COAST OF BRAZIL. 129 

Constitution should not interfere between them. Green wise- 
ly declined the invitation, and his vessel was blockaded by the 
Hornet. 




DECATUKS MEDAL. 



The Constitution now sailed (December 26th) on a cniise 
down the coast of Brazil, keeping the land aboard. Three 



130 STORY OF THE UNITED STATES NAVY. 

days afterward, when about thirty miles from shore, south-east- 
erly from Bahia, Bainbridge discovered two vessels to the wind- 
ward. The larger one showed a desire to meet the Constitu- 
tion, and \vas gratified. At noon both showed their colors and 
displayed signals, but the latter was mutually unintelligible. 
The stranger was an English frigate. Bainbridge prepared for 
action, when the English colors were hauled down, leaving only 
a jack flying. Both vessels ran upon the same tack, about a 
mile apart. At near two o'clock in the afternoon, the British 
frigate bore down upon the Constitution, with the intention of 
raking her, but failed in the attempt. 

At two o'clock, both ships on the same tack, the Constitu- 
tion fired a single gun across the stranger's bow, to draw out 
her ensign again. Then began a furious combat. When it 
had raged for half an hour, the wheel of the Constitution was 
shot away, and her antagonist, being a better sailer, had the 
advantage for a time. Bainbridge managed his crippled ship 
with so much skill, that he obtained a position where he gave 
his antao'onist a terrible rakino^ fire. 

The two vessels now ran free with the wind on their quarter, 
and at about three o'clock the Englishman attempted to close 
by running down on the Constitution'' s quarter. Her jib-boom 
penetrated the latter's mizzen rigging, and the spar was lost, 
together with the head of her bowsprit, by shots from the Con- 
stitution. Very soon afterward the latter poured a heavy raking 
broadside into the stern of her antagonist. This was followed 
by another, when the fore-mast of the English frigate went by 
the board, crashing through the forecastle and main deck in its 
passage. 

Now the Constitution shot ahead, and, after manoeuvring for 
about an hour, the two vessels lay broadside to broadside, en- 
gaged in deadly conflict, yard-arm to yard-arm. Very soon the 
mizzen-mast of the English vessel was shot away, and only her 
main-mast (whose yard had been carried away near the slings) 



THE "constitution" AND "jAVA." 131 

was left standing. The stranger's fire ceased, and, after a bat- 
tle of almost two hours, Bainbridge withdrew, under an impres- 
sion that his antagonist had struck her colors. Seeing an en- 
sign still fluttering on board the English frigate, he prepared 
to renew the combat, when the British colors were lowered in 
submission. The vessel proved to be the frigate Java, 38 guns, 
Captain H. Lambert. She was one of the finest frigates in the 
Royal Navy, and was bearing to India Lieutenant-general Hys- 
lop (Governor-general of Bombay) and his staff; a captain and 
lieutenant of the Royal Navy; and more than one hundred 
officers and men destined for service in the East Indies. 




WILLIAM UAINJUUDGK. 



The hulk of the Java was hardly worth saving under the cir- 
cumstances. Her three masts had gone overboard ; her bowsprit 
was cut off near the cap, and through wounds made by round 
shot she was leaking badly. She had lost sixty-five men killed 



132 



STORY OF THE UNITED STATES NAVY. 



and one hundred and twenty wounded. The wounded prison- 
ers and the passengers were transferred to the Constitution, and 




BAINBBIDGIC'S MEDAL. 



the Java, set on fire, was blown up. Bainbridge lost nine men 
killed in the action, and twenty-five wounded; among the lat- 



THE FOUKTH NAVAL VIGTOKY APPLAUDED. 133 

ter was himself slightly. The prisoners were paroled, and the 
passengers were landed at Bahia, when Bainbridge returned 
home, arriving at Boston on the 15th of February, 1813. 

Honors similar to those bestowed upon Hull, Jones, and 
Decatur were now awarded to Bainbridge. On the night of 
his arrival in Boston the victory was announced at the thea- 
tre, and the wildest enthusiasm was manifested. The citizens 
of Boston gave Bainbridge and officers a grand banquet ; the 
Legislature of Massachusetts gave him thanks ; the Corporation 
of New York conferred upon him the freedom of their city 
in a gold box, similar in form to the one given to General 
Brown (see page 114) ; so, also, did the Corporation of Albany. 
The citizens of Philadelphia gave him an elegant service of 
silver plate, and Congress voted him the thanks of the nation 
and a gold medal. They also voted $50,000 for himself and 
the ship's company as prize-money. 

This fourth brilliant naval victory in a brief space of time 
caused great exultation throughout the land. The Constitu- 
tion from that time was called " Old Ironsides." Orators and 
rhymers, the Pulpit and the Press, made the gallant exploits 
of Bainbridge the theme of many compositions in verse and 
prose. One of the most popular songs of the day was com- 
posed in honor of the captor of the Java, and was called 
" Bainbridge's Tid re I," in which, after every verse, the singer 
gives a sentence in prose, winding up with the chorus, "Tid re 
I, Tid re I, Tid re id re I do." The following is a specimen 
of that kind of song once so popular, and which was sung at 
public gatherings niore than ten years after the war: 

" Come, lads, draw near, and you shall hear, 

In truth as chaste as Dian, ! 
How Bainbridge true, and his bold crew, 

Again have tamed the lion, ! 
'Twas off Brazil he got the pill 

Which made him cry peccavi, ! 



134 STORY OF THE UNITED STATES NAVY. 

But hours two the Java^ new, 

Mahitained the battle bravelj', ! 
" But our gallant tars, as soon as they were piped to quarters, gave three 
cheers, and boldly swore, by the blood of the heroes of Tripoli, that soon- 
er than strike they'd go to the bottom, singing, 

" Tid re I, Tid re I, Tid re id re 1 do." 

The conflict between the Constitution and Java was the 
closing naval engagement of the year 1812. During six 
months the American cruisers, public and private, had captured 
about three hundred prizes from the British. These successes 
dispelled much of the gloom caused by the misfortunes of the 
land-forces. The American war-party was strengthened, and 
the friends of the navy were justified in their efforts in its 
behalf. The British public were astounded, and some of the 
newspapers exhibited strange petulance, by indulging in vul- 
gar abuse of the Americans. Even some of a better class of 
writers tried to deceive themselves and their readers by assert- 
ing that the victorious American cruisers were all 74's in dis- 
guise. 

Congress, now perceiving the necessity of an increase in the 
force of the navy, authorized the President to cause the con- 
struction of four 74-gun ships, six frigates, and six sloops-of- 
war. The cost of a frigate of 44 guns at that time was about 
$121,000, and of a 74-gun ship about $333,000. It was esti- 
mated that the expenses of one 74 in the service was a little 
less than that of two frigates of 44 guns each, and that her 
value in the service was equal to that of three frigates. It was 
this estimate that determined Congress to build the 74's. 

After the destruction of the Java, Bainbridge, as we have 
observed, sailed for the United States, leaving the Hornet, Cap- 
tain James Lawrence, to blockade the Bonne Citoyenne in the 
harbor of San Salvador or Bahia. She was a treasure -ship. 
Late in January, 1813, the British ship Montagu, 74 guns, 
came up from the Brazilian capital to raise this blockade. She 



PEACOCK. 



135 



drove the Hornet into the harbor. The latter escaped on a 
dark night, sailed up the coast, and a month later (February 
24th) fell in with two armed British vessels — a man-of-war 
and a brio;. The Hornet was cleared for action. The brio- 
bore down upon her. Both vessels contended for the weather- 
gage, and at sunset, as they passed each other, within half- 
pistol shot, running different ways, they each delivered a broad- 
side. The stranger attempted to Avear short around to get a 




JAMKS LAWRKNO 



raking fire at the Hornet. Lawrence was too quick for him, 
and, firing the starboard guns of the Hornet^ compelled the 
English vessel to right her helm. Now the Hornet fell upon 
her with a perfect blaze of fire from her great guns, closed 
upon her, and, in this advantageous position, poured in round 
shot with such viofor for fifteen minutes that her antagonist 
not only struck her colors, but raised a signal of distress. Her 
main-mast fell soon afterward, and went over her side. 



136 



STORY OF THE UNITED STATES NAVY. 



The vanquished vessel was the British man-of-war brig Pea- 
cocJc, Captain W. Peake. Her commander was killed ; a greater 




LAAVRENCE S MEDAL. 



part of her crew had fallen, and she was in a sinking condition, 
having already six feet of water in her hold. The removal of 



LAWRENCE HONORED. 



137 



the wounded to the Hornet was at once begun, and efforts 
were made to keep the sinking ship afloat; but, before the 
work of mercy could be accomplished, she went down, at twi- 
hght, with thirteen of her own crew and several men of the 
Hornet. Nine of the former and three of the latter were drown- 
ed. The Hornet had only one man killed in the engagement. 
She lost more in trying to save her enemies than in conquering 
them. 

Like the other naval victories already recorded, this pro- 
duced the greatest exultation in the United States. Lawrence 
was feasted and toasted. The Common Council of New York 
gave him the " freedom of the city," and a piece of silver plate. 
A public dinner was also given to him and his officers and crew. 
In January, 1814, after Lawrence was slain. Congress author- 
ized the President to give to his nearest masculine relative a 
gold medal ; also a silver medal to each of the commissioned 
officers who served with him on the Hornet. 




IIORNICT ANIJ I'KAOlJOli. 



As usual after a victory. Art and Song gave Lawrence praise. 
A caricature was published, in which was a representation of 
an enormous hornet, crying out " Free Trade and Sailors' 
Rights, you Old Rascal!" and lighting on an animal with the 



138 STORY OF THE UNITED STATES NAVY. 

• 

head and fore body of a bull, and wings, tail, and hind legs of 
a peacock. Piercing the neck of the bull with his sting, the 
hornet caused the mongrel animal to roar, " Boo-o-o-o-hoo ! ! !" 

The Chesajjeake, 38 guns. Captain Evans, was out on a cruise, 
while the Hornet was on her way home, having left Boston 
late in February, 1813. She passed the Canary and Cape 
Verde Islands, crossed the equator, cruised in the middle wa- 
ters of the Atlantic several weeks, and then went to the coast 
of South America. She afterward sailed through the West In- 
dies, and up the coast of the United States to Boston. During 
the whole of her long cruise the Chesapeake accomplished noth- 
ing but the capture of four merchant-vessels. She entered Bos- 
ton harbor in a gale which carried away a top-mast. With it 
several men, who were aloft, went overboard and were drowned. 
The Chesapeake had the reputation of being an " unlucky " ves- 
sel before the war, and this cruise, and its unfortunate ending, 
confirmed that impression. 

The commander of the Chesapeake was compelled to leave 
her on account of the loss of the sight of one of his eyes, and 
Lawrence, who had been promoted to captain, was offered the 
command of her. He accepted it with reluctance, for good 
sailors avoided her as an " unlucky " ship. At this time (May) 
British blockading ships were hovering like hawks along the 
New England coast. The Shannon, 38 guns, and Teneclos, 
38, were closely watching Boston harbor. The Hornet had 
been placed under the immediate command of Captain Biddle, 
and subject to the orders of Captain Lawrence. At the close 
of May these two vessels were about to sail on a cruise to the 
north-eastward to intercept British vessels bound for the St. 
Lawrence, and to seek the Greenland whale-fishers. At that 
juncture the Shannon, Captain Broke, appeared alone, off Bos- 
ton, in the character of a challenger to combat. On the 1st of 
June Captain Broke wrote to Lawrence, saying : 

"As the Chesapeake now appears ready for sea, I request 



LAWKENCE CHALLENGED. 139 

you will do me the favor to meet the Shannon with her, ship 
to ship, to try the fortunes of our respective flags. To an of- 
ficer of your character it requires some apology for proceed- 
ing to further particulars. Be assured, sir, it is not from any 
doubt I entertain of your wishing to close with my proposal, 
but merely to provide an answer to any objection which might 
be made, and very reasonably, upon the chance of our receiv- 
ing any unfair support." Broke then proceeded to explain his 
object, mentioned his own strength, the disposition of other 
British vessels in the neighborhood, the designated place of 
combat, asked for mutual signals, and assured him that tl 
Chesajoeake could not get to sea without " the risk of bein 
crushed by a British squadron " then abroad. 



jy . 

c?-^^^^ 



le 









^ civ^-i-e/ -i^;^— l^-r^/^^ -^>^ ^cZ- 




.s^^^^^v^^ c^ ^^^i^-t^^ '^^-^^'-^C^ir;;^^ 




v- 



^ 



FAC-BIMILE OF LAWRENCE'S LETTER. 



Lawrence had written to the Secretary of the Navy that 
morning: "An English frigate is now in sight from my deck. 
I have sent a pilot out to reconnoitre, and, should she be alone, 
I am in hopes to give a good account of her befo're night." 

The Shannon mounted fifty -two guns, and was manned with 



140 STORY OF THE UNITED STATES NAVY. 

three hundred men and boys, besides thirty seamen, all of them 
thoroughly disciplined, and all had confidence in each other. 
The Chesapeake, on the contrary, had an almost mutinous crew, 
on account of disputes concerning prize-money won during the 
last cruise. Several of Lawrence's officers were absent on ac- 
count of sickness, and he had commanded the vessel only ten 
days. There were a large number of mercenaries on board 
the Chempeake, among them a vicious Portuguese who was 
boatswain's mate. Many of the crew had also lately enlisted, 
and in every way, though almost equal to the Shannon in 
weight of metal, the Chesapeake was unprepared to meet her 
foe on an equal footing. Yet Lawrence accepted the challenge. 



THE "CHESAPEAKE" AND "SHANNON." 141 



CHAPTER XL 

The Chesapeake went out to meet the Shannon at noon on 
a beautiful day, the 1st of June, 1813. Lawrence had tried 
to conciliate the unruly men, giving- them checks for their 
prize-money; and to stimulate their patriotism, he unfurled 
from the fore a flag bearing the words — first used by Porter on 
the Essex — " Free Trade and Sailors'' Rightsy 

The Shannon being in sight, the decks of the Chesapeake 
were immediately cleared for action, and both vessels, under 
easy sail, bore away to a position about thirty miles from Bos- 
ton Light, between Cape Cod and Cape Ann. At four o'clock 
the Chesapeake fired a gun, made the Shannon heave to, and 
bore down upon her with much speed, for the breeze was fresh- 
ening. Very soon she lay along-side her antagonist, yard-arm 
to yard-arm, within pistol-shot distance of each other. A se- 
vere combat ensued. For several minutes the cannonade on 
both sides was incessant, and the Chesapeake had suffered dread- 
fully in the loss of officers and men. Compared to that of 
her foe, it was as ten to one. 

After a contest of twelve minutes, the Chesapeake was se- 
verely crippled in her sails and rigging, and she refused to 
obey her helm at a moment when she intended to take the 
wind out of the sails of the Shannon, shoot ahead, lay across 
her bow, and possibly gain a victory. Finally she got her miz- 
zen-rigging foul of the Shannoji^s fore-chains, and, so entan- 
gled, lay exposed to the raking fire of her foe's carronades, 
which almost swept clean her upper decks. 

Perceiving this entanglement. Captain Lawrence gave orders 



142 STORY OF THE UNITED STATES NAVY. 

to call up the boarders. The hiig-ler employed for the purpose 
was so terrified that he could not give a blast of his instru- 
ment, and oral orders were issued amid the din of battle. At 
that moment, while Lawrence was giving some directions, a 
musket- ball wounded him fatally. He was immediately car- 
ried below, and his last words were, " Tell the men to fire 
faster, and not to give up the ship. Fight her till she sinks!" 
These words of the dying officer were reuiembered, and ^'DorCt 
give up the ship /" was the stirring battle-cry of the American 
Navy during the remainder of the war. 

No officer above the rank of midshipman was now on the 
quarter-deck of the Chesapeake. The sailing-master was killed ; 
Ludlow, the first lieutenant, was badly wounded, and other offi- 
cers, including the boatswain, were mortally hurt. Captain 
Broke's experienced eye quickly perceived the weakness of 
his antagonist at that moment, and ordered his boarders for- 
ward, himself leading twenty men, who reached the quarter- 
deck of the Chesa2)€ake without opposition. Only a few men 
of the latter, led by Lieutenant Budd, were able to confront 
the boarders. Budd was soon badly wounded, and his men 
were driven to the forecastle. At that moment Lieutenant 
Ludlow, though severely wounded, hurried to the deck, where 
he received a fatal sabre -blow almost immediately, and was 
carried below. 

Broke now ordered sixty of his marines to join him. While 
keeping down the men who were attempting to ascend the 
main hatchway of the Chesapeake, a shot from a boy among 
them caused a murderous volley to be fired among the crowd 
below, which killed many men. The complete control of the 
Chesapeake was now given to the British by the treachery of 
the mutinous Portuguese (see page 140), who removed the 
gratings of the berth-deck and ran below, with many of his 
discontented followers, shouting maliciously, " So mnch for not 
paying men prize-money !" 



LOSS OF THE "CHESAPEAKE." 145 

Lieutenant Watts, of the Shannon, hauled down the colors 
of the Chesapeake while a gallant few were defending- them, 
and was instantly slain by a grape-shot from his own ship. 
Both frigates presented a most dismal spectacle. Their decks 
were strewn with the killed and wounded. Captain Broke, 
who had been prostrated by a sabre, was delirious. Lawrence 
was dying. His lamp of life went out on the voyage to Hali- 
fax, whither the Shannon conducted the Chesapeake as a prize, 
on the 6tli of June. The victor entered the harbor amid wild 
shouts of joy, while the body of Lawrence, shrouded in the 
flag of the Chesapeake, lay on her quarter-deck. 

The wounded Ludlow was also dead. The bodies of the 
two young heroes were carried to the city of New York, and 
laid in Trinity church-yard, near the south-east corner of the 
front of the church, in full view from Broadway. K fine sar- 
cophagus of brown freestone has been erected to the memory of 
Lawrence and Ludlow. Broke recovered, and received special 
favors from his king and his countrymen. He was knighted, 
and was made the recipient of a magnificent service of plate. 

This victory of the Shannon produced a profound impres- 
sion in Enghmd, and the most extravagant demonstrations of 
joy. The almost uninterrupted success of the American cruis- 
ers had filled the minds of the British people with despond- 
ency. They began to believe the American Navy was invinci- 
ble, and that the sceptre was about to depart fro]n Britannia 
as the boasted " Mistress of the Seas." Now the spell seemed 
broken. The tables were turned. The Americans were de- 
spondent — the English were jubilant. 

The loss of the Chesapeake was followed in the same month 
(June, 1813) by the desolation of the Asp and the capture of 
the Argus, 16 guns. The Asp was a small vessel carrying- 
three guns, and employed in the protection of the harbors of 
Chesapeake Bay against British marauders. She was chased 
by a flotilla of small British vessels ; boarded by an over- 

7* 



146 



STOEY OF THE UNITED STATES XAYY. 



whelming number of men; her commander (Midshipman Se- 
gauny) was killed ; a large portion of his people were denied 
quarter after they had surrendered, and perished ; and the ves- 
sel was set on fire. The flames were afterward extino-uished. 



^^^^fe-f^ 




JJIKIKE S SII.VKR PLATE. 



The Argus sailed from New York on June 18th, bearing 
W. H. Crawford as American minister to France. She was in 
charge of Lieutenant -commander William Henry Allen, of 
Rhode Island, and carried twenty 32 -pound carronades, and 
two bow guns. The merchant marine in British waters then 
felt under no apprehension of danger from American cruisers, 
and the English and Irish Channels were unprotected by a 
naval force. 



147 

Informed of this state of tilings, Allen, after tarrying three 
days in the French port where he had landed Mr. Crawford, 
sailed on a cruise, with a determination to repeat the exploits 
of John Paid Jones (see pages 41, 42) in British waters. By 
audacity, celerity of movement, and destructive energy, he 
spread consternation throughout commercial England. In less 
than thirty days he captured and destroyed twenty British 
merchantmen, valued, with their cargoes, at $2,000,000. Too 
far away from American ports to use them, Allen burnt all 
his prizes, allowing all non-combatant captives to remove their 
private property before applying the torch. All prisoners were 
paroled, and sent on shore as quickly as possible. 




WILLIAM ue:<ry ALLKN. 



The British authorities, aroused to vigorous action by the 
depredations of the Arr/us, sent out several cruisers to attempt 
her capture. On the 13th of August (1813) the Argus cap- 



148 STOEY OF THE UiNITED STATES NAVY. 

tured a ship laden Avitli wine. The liquor was stealthily used 
by the crew, and when a British brig was seen bearing down 
upon her under a cloud of canvas, they were completely de- 
moralized by iutoxication. The vessel was the Pelican, 18 
guns, Captam J. F. Maples. They met at grape-shot distance, 
and began firing broadsides. The first shot from the Pelican 
carried away Commander Allen's left leg. He would not leave 
the deck; but in a few minutes, becoming unconscious from 
loss of blood, he was carried to the cockpit. Other officers 
were badly injured; and only one lieutenant (W. Howard Al- 
len) remained unhurt. He fought the brig valiantly so long 
as the Argus remained manageable. 

Finally, when all the braces of the Argus were shot away, 
her wheel-ropes and running rigging were gone, and she could 
not be kept in position, hope for her safety almost disappear- 
ed. At length, when the Pelican, lying under the stern of the 
Argus, poured in a terrific fire, further contest seemed useless. 
Yet an effort was made to lay the crippled vessel along-side her 
vigorous foe for the purpose of boarding her. It failed, and, 
after a determined combat of forty-five minutes, the colors of 
the Argus were lowered. 

The consort of the Pelican had just hove in sight when the 
Argus surrendered, and at that moment boarders entered the 
vanquished vessel at her bow and took possession. Her wound- 
ed commander and others who were injured were taken into 
Plymouth, and kindly treated in the Mill Prison Hospital. 
There Commander Allen died the next day. On the 21st (Au- 
gust, 1813) his remains were buried in Plymouth church-yard 
with military honors. The Argus had lost six men killed, and 
seventeen wounded. 

There was partial compensation for the loss of the Argus, in 
a naval victory for the Americans, off the coast of New Eng- 
land, the next month. The brig Enterprise, 14 guns. Lieuten- 
ant W. Burrows, commander, had cruised off that coast for a 



THE "eNTEUPKISe" AND " UOXEU." 149 

long time, under Lieutenant Johnston Blakeley, and was the 
terror of British privateers. Blakeley was promoted, and Bar- 
rows took his place. The Enterprise continued to watch for an 
enemy along the coast from Cape Ann to the Bay of Fiindy. 

On the mornino- of the 1st of September (1813), the Enter- 
prise sailed from Portsmouth, New Hampshire, and chased a 
British privateer into Portland harbor on the morning of the 
3d. The next day she put to sea, steering eastward, and dis- 
covered a British brig-of-war in Pemmaquid Bay getting un- 
der way. She was the Boxer, 14 guns. Captain S. Blyth. She 
displayed four British ensigns, and, crowding canvas, bore down 
gallantly on the Enterprise. Burrows cleared his ship for ac- 
tion, and, at a proper distance from land, to secure ample sea- 
room for battle, approached the Boxer. 

Between three and four o'clock in the afternoon the brigs 
closed within half-pistol shot, and opened lire simultaneously. 
A light wind scarcely ruffled the sea, and the cannonading was 
very destructive. In the course of ten minutes the Enterprise 
steered ahead of the Boxer, and across her bows, and then de- 
livered her fire with such precision and destructive energy, that 
a shout came through a trumpet from the English brig that 
she had surrendered. Her colors could not be struck, for they 
had been nailed to the mast. Iler commander had been near- 
ly cut in two by an 18-pound ball. Almost at the same time 
Burrows was mortally wounded, but he lived eight hours. He 
refused to be carried below until he received the sword of 
Blyth. They were both young men of great promise, less than 
thirty years of age. 

Burrows was wounded at the beginning of the battle, and the 
Enterjyrise was managed in tlie combat by Lieut. E. R. McCall, 
who took both vessels into Portland harbor on the morning 
of the 7th. On the following day the remains of both com- 
manders, with those of Midshipman Waters, who was killed, 
were conveyed to the same cemetery, and laid side by side. Over 



150 



STOKY OF THE UNITED STATES NAVY, 



their respective graves are commemorative monuments. The 
one to the memory of Burrows was erected by Silas M. Bur- 
rows, of New York city ; and the one over the grave of Blyth 
was reared by the surviving officers under his command. Con- 
gress presented to the nearest mascuHne relative of Burrows a 
gold medal with suitable emblems and inscriptions. A gold 
medal was also presented to McCall, the second in command 
of the Enterprise. 




GUAVKS OF JJU11UOW8, BI-YTII, AND WATKUS. 



^:a^' 



Superior excellence in gunnery was accorded to the Ameri- 
cans in the conflict between the Enterprise and the Boxer. A 
London newspaper, commenting upon the battle, said: 

" The fact seems to be but too clearly established, that the 
Americans have some sup>erior mode of firing^ and we cannot 
be too anxiously employed in discovering to what circumstance 
that superiority is owing." 



PKEMATURE BOASTING. 



151 



The loss of tlie Boxer produced mucli mortification in Brit- 
ish minds. No doubt Captain Blyth felt sure of victory, evinced 




BUUROWS'S MKDAL. 



by the perilous and foolish, thougli silent, boast in advance 
dicated in the fact of the nailino- of his colors to the mast. 



152 STORY OF THE UNITEfD STATES NAVY. 

The Enteriyrise made only one more cruise during the war. 
Under the command of Lieutenant-commander Renshaw, she 
sailed southward as far as the West Indies in company with 
the fast-sailing brig Rattlesyiake. Off the coast of Florida she 
captured a British privateer, and both vessels were chased by 
an English '74-gun ship. The Rattlesnake was soon out of 
sight; but the Enterprise, a slower sailer, casting her guns over- 
board to increase her speed, was closely pressed in a chase for 
seventy hours, when the " lucky " little brig, struck by a favor- 
able, shifting wind, escaped into Charleston harbor, where she 
was employed until the end of the war as a guard-ship. 

I have told you the story, in rapid succession, of the exploits 
of several American cruisers during the earlier portion of the 
war with Great Britain in 1812-15. I will now relate the 
chief incidents of one of the most remarkable cruises recorded 
in naval history. The hero of the story was Captain David 
Porter, then only thirty-three years of age. 

AYe have observed on page 126 that when Commodore Bain- 
bridge sailed from Boston, the Essex was lying in the Delaware 
River. She left that stream on the 28th of October, 1812, 
with a crew of three hundred and eighteen men, including all 
the officers. There were three commissioned and two acting 
lieutenants and twelve midshipmen on board. Among the lat- 
ter was the late Admiral Farragut, then between eleven and 
twelve years of age. The Essex was thus strongly officered 
and manned in anticipation of a long cruise. At her mast- 
head floated a flag bearing the inscription, in large letters, 
" Free Trade and Sailors' Rights." 

The Essex had been ordered to seek the Constitution and 
Hornet, under Bainbridge, at specified ports ; but failing to do 
so, Porter w^as allowed to act in accordance with his own judg- 
ment. He did not find them. On his way southward, just 
after he had crossed the equator, he fell in with and captured 
(December 11th, 1812) the British brig Nocton, 10 guns — a 



FAMOUS CRUISE OF THE ''ESSEX. 



153 



government packet — witli passengers and $55,000 in specie. 
The human freight and specie were transferred to the Essex^ 
and the prize was despatched to the United States in charge 
of Lieutenant Finch. She was recaptured by an English frig- 
ate between the Bermudas and the capes of Virginia. 




DAVID POKTEK. 



Two days after the capture of the JVocton, the Essex came 
in sight of Fernando de Noronha, a penal island whereon no 
woman was allowed to dwell. Disguising his ship as a mer- 
chantman, and hoisting English colors, he entered the harbor 
of that island, procured water and refreshments, and received 
from the governor a communication from Bainbridge, the most 
secret portion of it written in invisible "sympathetic ink," 
which was made plain by heat. By it he was directed by the 



154 STORY OF THE UNITED STATES NAVY. 

commodore (then off San Salvador or Baliia) to cruise off Cape 
Frio, above Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Porter obeyed, and for 
some time he cruised up and down the Brazilian coast between 
Cape Frio and St. Catherine. 

Porter missed Bainbridge. The South American govern- 
ments were then under English influence, v/hile his own was 
very little known or respected there. He had no friendly 
ports for shelter, or into which to send prizes if he should 
catch them. He was compelled, as he said, to choose between 
capture, blockade, and starvation, if he remained in those 
waters. As he could not find the commodore, he resolved, 
with the discretion given him, to sail into the Pacific Ocean. 
He left St. Catherine on tlie 26th of January, 1813, swept 
through the perilous seas around Cape Horn, and on the 5th 
of March the anchor of the Uissex was fii'st cast, after leaving 
the Brazilian coast, at the island of Mocha, off the shores of 
Araucania. Before the adventurous navigators arose, in sol- 
emn grandeur, in the clear, blue firmament, the solitary mount- 
ain peak of Mocha, a thousand feet above the sea, while far 
in the north-east were seen the glittering summits of the snow- 
clad Andes, hundreds of miles distant. 

Porter was now in the calmer waters of the Pacific Ocean. 
An exciting hunt on the island, by his crew, furnished an am- 
ple supply of food to the people of the Essex, for it was once 
inhabited by Spaniards, and now abounded with fat wild swine. 
Along its shores were large numbers of seals, and immense 
flocks of birds were everywhere seen. But his naval stores 
were much exhausted, and he cruised northward in search of a 
prize that might replenish them. 

Enveloped for several days in thick fog, on the 14th of 
March the Essex, sweeping around a point, came suddenly in 
view of Valparaiso, the chief seaport town of Chili. Several 
Spanish vessels were just departing, and Porter, not wishing to 
have them carry the news to Europe that an American frigate 



THE " ESSEX" IN THE PACIFIC 155 

was in the Pacific, bore off to tlie northward. Returning the 
next day, he learned the two important facts that Chili, which 
had just become independent of Spain, was friendly to the 
United States, and that the Viceroy of Peru had sent out cruis- 
ers against American shipping in that region. 

Porter's appearance with a strong frigate was very oppor- 
tune, for American commerce there was at the mercy of Eng- 
lish privateers among whalers and the Peruvian corsairs. Por- 
ter was cordially received by the Chilian authorities. Mr. Poin- 
sett, the American consul-general, hastened from Santiago to 
Valparaiso to join in the festivities arranged for giving Porter 
a formal reception. Dinners, balls, and excursions on land and 
water succeeded ; and the officers never forgot those hours of 
enjoyment among the Chilian beauties, by whom they were 
much petted. 

The Essex, after being well victualled, put to sea, and, sailing 
up the coast, captured the Peruvian corsair Nereyda, with a 
number of American captives on board, taken from whaling- 
ships. Porter took her prisoners from her, and, after casting 
her cannons, ammunition, and small arms into the sea, sent her 
to Callao, the chief seaport of Peru, with a letter to the viceroy, 
demanding the punishment of her commander for her piratical 
practices. Near the harbor of Coquimbo he recaptured the 
American whaler Barclay, and making her the consort of the 
Essex, sailed for the Galapagos Islands, which was the resort 
of English whaling-vessels. He ascertained that about twenty 
of them were there — fine ships — mostly armed, and their com- 
manders bearing tlie commissions of privateers. 

Porter prepared for a fierce struggle with these armed Eng- 
lish whalers. His two ships were put in perfect order, and 
seven boats were arranged as a flotilla, and placed in charge of 
Lieutenant Downes. At one of the islands Downes found a 
box nailed to a post, and marked ^'' Hathaway'* s Post -Office.'''' 
Its contents were taken to the Essex, and lists of Enorlish whal- 



156 STORY OF THE UNITED STATES NAVY. 

ers which had touched there within a few months, found among 
them, gave positive evidence that it was the resort of such ves- 
sels. Then Porter cruised eagerly among the islands, but for 
almost a fortnight not a vessel was seen. 

On the morning of April 29th (1813), the welcome cry of 
" Sail ho !" came down from the lookout of the Essex. She 
immediately gave chase to the vessel seen, and the stranger 
soon became a prize to the frigate. She was the English whale- 
ship Montezii7na, with fourteen hundred barrels of oil on board. 
Placing a prize-crew in her. Porter pursued two other vessels 
which hove in sight. Then a dead calm came on, and Downes 
and his flotilla pursued the larger vessel. She continually train- 
ed her gans upon the flotilla, but in the afternoon surrendered 
without firing a shot. She was the English whale-ship Geor- 
giana. Her companion (the whale-ship Policy) was captured 
in the same manner. These prizes furnished Porter with many 
needed supplies — among other things three huge Galapagos 
turtles — a very welcome and healthful luxury. 

The Georgiana^ which had been built for the service of the 
East India Company, was pierced for eighteen guns, and had 
six mounted. The Policy was pierced for the same number, 
and had ten mounted. The Georgiana was made a consort for 
the Essex, with sixteen light guns, and placed under the com- 
mand of Lieutenant Downes. She sailed away on an inde- 
pendent cruise, while the Essex and her other prizes kept to- 
gether. After many days they chased and captured (May 
28th) the English whale-ship Atlantic, carrying eight 18-pound- 
er carronades, and twenty-three men. During this chase an- 
other vessel — the Greenwich — was captured. Both she and the 
Atlantic carried letters of marque, or pi'ivateers' commissions. 

With his five prizes, Porter entered the bay of Guayaquil, and 
anchored off Tuuibez on June 19th. There he was joined by 
the Georgiana, which brought two prizes. Downes had capt- 
ured a third, which he had filled with his superabundant pris- 



A 



portek's squadron in the pacific. 157 

oners, and sent to the island of St. Helena, a dreary island in 
the Atlantic Ocean belonging to Great Britain, where she im- 
prisoned the fallen Emperor Napoleon I., and where he died. 

Porter now found himself, at the end of eight months, after 
leaving the Delaware, in command of a squadron of nine armed 
vessels. The Atlantic being superior to the Georgiana, Downes 
was transferred to her with his crew. She was named Essex, 
Jr., and was manned by sixty picked men. The Georgiana 
was armed with twenty guns, and converted into a store-ship 
under the command of " Parson " Adams, chaplain of the 
Essex. 



158 STORY OF THE UNI'1;ED STATES NAVY. 



CHAPTER XII. 

Porter sailed with his squadron from Tiimbez on the 30th 
of June; and early in July he sent the Essex, Jr., to Valparaiso, 
with five of the captured vessels in convoy, while the Essex, 
accompanied by the Georgiana and Greenwich, steered toward 
the Galapagos. The late Admiral Farragut, as w^e have ob- 
served, was with Porter — a child-midshipman — and was charged 
with a great trust at this time for one of his age. He says in 
his journal : 

" I was sent as prize-master to the Barclay. This was an 
important event in my life, and when it was decided that I was 
to take the ship to Valparaiso, I felt no little pride at finding 
myself in command at twelve years of age." 

Very soon after the Essex and her two companions sailed 
from Tumbez, they captured three English vessels, one of them 
(the Serhiffapatam) a staunch Englisli cruiser, which had been 
built for the India Sultan, Tippoo Saib. She mounted 14 guns, 
and was a formidable foe of American commerce in the Pa- 
cific. She was captured by the Greenwich, after an exchange 
of a few broadsides. The guns were taken out of another of 
the captives and placed in the Seringapatam, giving her an 
armament of 22 heavy cannons, and making her a formidable 
cruiser. 

Porter now found himself burdened with prisoners. He ad- 
mitted many to parole, placed them on one of the smaller capt- 
ured vessels, and sent them to Rio de Janeiro, on a pledge of 
honor. The Georgiana, with one hundred thousand dollars' 
worth of spermaceti oil, was sent to the United States, with 



PORTER IN THE MARQUESAS ISLANDS. 159 

the captain of the SerhigaiMtam in irons, who was subjected 
to the penalty for piracy, being without a privateer's commis- 
sion. 

The Essex^ with three other vessels, now sailed for Albe- 
marle Island, the largest of the Galapagos group, and remain- 
ed in that neighborhood several weeks. Searching for a foe, 
Porter fell in with and captured (September 15th) an English 
whaler with 12 guns, having an ample supply of provisions and 
water, which the Essex needed. Porter was soon afterward 
joined by Downes, who had learned at Valparaiso two impor- 
tant facts — namely, that the British frigate Phoebe, with one or 
two consorts, had been ordered to the Pacific to attempt the 
capture of the Essex, and that the Chilian authorities were be- 
coming more friendly to the English than to the Americans. 
This information determined Porter to go to the Marquesas 
Islands, refit his vessels, and return to the United States. He 
had captured nearly every English whale-ship known to be oft' 
the coasts of Peru and Chili, and had taken from the enemy 
property valued at $2,500,000, and 3G0 seamen. He had re- 
lieved American whalers from danger, and inspired the authori- 
ties of Peru and Chili with respect for the power of the United 
States. 

Captain Porter, with the Essex and five other armed vessels, 
left the Galapagos on the 2d of October, and on the 23d the 
group of the Marquesas appeared on the western horizon. Sail- 
ing among the islands a few days, and exciting the curiosity of 
the natives, who thronged the shores, the squadron anchored in 
a fine bay of Nooaheeva Island. The Essex was the first ves- 
sel that carried the pennant of an American man-of-war around 
Cape Horn, and the first to bear it into these far-off seas. She 
was now^ ten thousand miles from home, without a consort, with- 
out a friendly port to repair to, and short of stores. 

When the Essex had cast anchor, a canoe shot out from the 
shore and came alongside the frigate. It bore three white men, 



160 



STOKY OF THE UNITED STATES JNAVT. 



one of whom was naked, and tattooed like the natives. He 
was an Englishman, who had been on the island twenty years. 




""'^"'''Sijiiiiijil" 



AYith him was Midshipman John Maury, U. S. N., who, with 
a seaman, had been left there to gather sandal- wood, while his 



i 



rOKTEK C02^CiUEllS HOSTILE JSOUAHEEVANS. 161 

vessel should go to China and return. They informed Porter 
that there was war between tribes in different valleys on the 
island, and that if he wished to get supplies he must help the 
tribe nearest his anchorage against their enemies. 

The tattooed Englishman became Porter's interpreter. The 
captain was welcomed on the beach by a throng of men, women, 
and children. He was followed by his marines, with beating- 
drums and the crack of musketry. These noises brought the 
enemies of the people he was among to the crest of a moun- 
tain near by, where they brandished their clubs and spears in a 
threatening manner. Porter sent the hostiles word that he had 
power to take possession of the whole island ; that they must 
not again enter the valley of his friends as their enemies, and 
that they might bring him supplies, with an assurance of pro- 
tection while they were trafficking. 

The hostile tribe defied him. Porter landed a 6-pounder 
cannon, which the natives dragged to the summit of a moun- 
tain. At the same time. Lieutenant Downes, with forty men 
and muskets, pressed forward, and drove four thousand of the 
barbarians from their stronghold. They were completely sub- 
dued, and within a week ample supplies came from them and 
almost every tribe on the island, with tokens of friendship. 
One tribe alone — the Typees — remained hostile. These Porter 
effectually subdued after another sharp and short campaign. 
There was no further trouble while he remained. 

While Porter was at Nooaheeva his men were allowed to 
go freely on shore. They formed tender attachments there. 
The young women were really beautiful. When, on the eve of 
departure. Porter forbade his men. leaving the ships, they were 
greatly discontented ; and the girls lined the shore from morn- 
ing until night, importuning the captain to take the taboo off 
the men. They gayly exhibited their grief by dipping their 
fingers in the sea and letting the water trickle from their eyes 
like tears. Some threatened to beat their brains out with a 



162 STORY OF THE UNITED STATES NAVY. 

spear of grass ; and they declared they would punish them- 
selves dreadfully if the captain did not let their sweethearts 
come to them. One of Porter's crew (an Englishman) became 
so mutinous that the commander sent the man ashore and left 
him behind. 

Porter was now thoroughly prepared for a long voyage and 
for defence. Having driven the mutineer ashore, the captain 
addressed his crew, praising them generally for their faithful- 
ness, but gave the discontented ones to understand that while 
he commanded the ship no conspiracy could succeed, for he 
would blow up the magazilie before the vessel should be seized. 
He then ordered the music to play " The Girl I left behind 
Me," had the anchor of the Essex hauled up to her bows in a 
trice, and sailed away, with the Essex, Jr. He took with him 
Mr. Maury and his companion, and on the third of February, 
1814, he entered the harbor of Valparaiso, accompanied by the 
Essex, Jr. The latter cruised off the port as a scout to give 
warning of any approaching foe. . 

Very soon two English men-of-w^ar were reported in the off- 
ing. They were the frigate Phoebe, 36 guns. Captain Hillyar, 
with 320 men and boys; and the Cherub, 20 guns, Captain 
Tucker, with a crew of 180. She really mounted 32 guns. 
The Essex could muster only 225 souls, and the Essex, Jr., only 
60. The weight of men and metal was heavily in favor of the 
British vessels. The latter sailed into the harbor prepared for 
action, and seeming ready to violate the hospitalities of a neu- 
tral port. 

The Phoebe, with her men at quarters, ran along-side the Es- 
sex in a threatening manner. 

" I hope you'll not come too near," said Porter, " for fear 
some accident might take place which would be disagreeable 
to you." 

Porter's men were all at quarters, and ready to board the 
Phoebe at the moment of command. Captain Hillyar declared 



AND HER CONSOKT AT VALPARAISO. 163 

that if he should fall aboard the JEssex^ it would be entirely 
accidental. 

" Well," said Porter, " you have no business where you are. 
If you touch a rope-yarn of this ship, I shall board instantly." 
He then hailed the Essex, Jr., and told Lieutenant Downes to 
be prepared to repel the enemy. With the help of that ves- 
sel he could have sunk the Phoebe in fifteen minutes. The lat- 
ter continued in her hostile attitude, and the men of the Essex 
were ordered to spring upon the enemy's ship, with cutlasses in 
hand, should she touch the Essex. Perceiving his danger. Cap- 
tain Hillyar threw up his arras in consternation, and shouted 
that the hostile position of his vessel had really been effected 
by accident. Porter generously accepted the poor and evi- 
dently insincere apology, and the frightened Englishman was 
allowed to pass on unhurt. We shall observe presently how 
this courtesy was requited. 

The English vessels put to sea and cruised off the harbor of 
Valparaiso, waiting for the arrival of other British cruisers. 
Porter, after trying in vain for several weeks to induce Hillyar 
to fight, attempted to run the blockade. The Essex was in- 
jured in a squall, and ran to the shelter of a bay outside the 
harbor. Unmindful of the courtesy shown him by Porter 
when he was helpless, Hillyar now proceeded with both his ves- 
sels to attack the Essex (March 28th, 1814), while the Essex, J?., 
was unable to help her consort ; yet so effective was the re- 
sponse of the crippled frigate, that, after a furious conflict for 
half an hour, both of the English vessels were compelled to 
withdraw to make repairs. 

The Phoebe and Cherub soon renewed the combat in a posi- 
tion to be unharmed by Porter's carronades. The latter saw 
that his only safety was in fighting at close quarters, and he 
moved slowly toward his antagonist. The Essex was now so 
crippled that the only available piece of canvas was her flying- 
jib. This had been hoisted and her cable cut, and when she 



164 STORY OF THE UNITJJD STATES NAVY. 

was within carronade range of her foe she opened a terrific fire. 
The Phoehe changed her position to long range, and swept the 
Essex with a raking fire that strewed her decks with the dead 
and dying. Her cockpit and wardroom were filled with the 
wounded; a portion of her hull was in flames; and many of 
her guns were disabled, and the gunners slain. Yet she drove 
off the Cherub again, and for two hours kept up a tremendous 
conflict with her principal antagonist. 

Perceiving no chance to board the Phoehe, and the carnage 
on his vessel being most dreadful, Porter determined to run 
her ashore, land his people, and burn her. At that moment 
the wind changed, and he could not carry out his design. Lieu- 
tenant Downes, of the Essex, Jr., came to him in an open boat 
for orders. 

" Defend your vessel or burn her," was the only order given. 

Meanwhile the Phoebe'' s shot hulled iha Essex at almost every 
discharge. Porter let go an anchor, which brought the head 
of the frigate around, when he gave the Phoebe a full and ef- 
fective broadside, which so crij)pled her that she became un- 
manageable, and floated away with the tide. 

Porter still had hopes of final victory, when the hawser of 
the Essex parted. She was on fire, and was almost a total 
wreck. He called for his officers for a consultation. Only one 
man came ! All the others were slain or wounded. He told 
his men that they must either take the risk of drowning by 
jumping overboard, or of surely being blown up when the 
flames should reach the magazine. They chose the former al- 
ternative as the only chance to save their lives. Many of them 
got ashore in safet\", but many others were drowned. 

Porter now hauled down his flag and surrendered. The 
flames were soon afterward subdued, and the hull of the Essex 
was saved. Of her two hundred and twenty -five men who 
went into the contest only seventy-five effective ones remained, 
and were made prisoners. 



A COURAGEOUS YOUNG SAILOR. 167 

You have observed that the late Admiral Farragut was with 
Porter on this cruise in the Pacific Ocean. He was active in 
the battle at Valparaiso, although he was then less than thir- 
teen years of age. After the surrender he had a fist contest 
with one of the sailors of the Phoebe, in which he was victori- 
ous. It was in this wise : 

On the Essex was a favorite pig which they had named 
" Murphy." A sailor of the Phoebe brought this porker from 
the Essex, and, as he came aboard, he shouted, 

"A prize ! a prize ! Ho, boys, a fine grunter, by Jove !" 

Farragut claimed the animal as his own. 

" No !" said the English sailor, " you are a prisoner, and so 
is your pig." 

" We always respect private property," said the boy, and 
seized the pig with a determination not to let go unless com- 
pelled by superior force. 

" This," says Farragut (who tells the story in his journal), 
" was fun for the oldsters," who immediately cried out, 

"Go it, my little Yankee ; if you can thrash ' Shorty,' you 
shall have the pig." 

" Agreed !" said the brave boy. 

A ring was formed, and at it they went. 

"I soon found," says Farragut, "that my antagonist's pu- 
gilistic education did not equal mine. In fact, he was no 
match for me, and was compelled to give up the pig. So I 
took Master Murphy under my arm, feeling that I had in some 
degree wiped out the disgrace of our defeat." 

The wonderful cruise of the Essex was now ended. Her 
consort, the Essex, Jr., was made a cartel-ship, and in her Por- 
ter and his surviving companions sailed for the United States. 
They were detained off the coast of Long Island by a British 
man-of-war. Porter, regarding this as a violation of the agree- 
ment with Ilillyar, escaped in a whale-boat, and made his way 
to New York, where he gave the first intelligence of the result 



IGS 



STORY OF THE UNITBD STATES XAYY. 



of his long and eventful cruise. The halls of Congress and of 
State Legislatures rang with his praises ; and the people and 
the newspapers hailed him as the " Hero of the Pacific." 
Philip Frenau, called "The Bard of the Revolution," wrote a 
dull ode on " The Capture of the Essex.'' 




rOUTKll 8 AIO.NL'MEM'. 



Captain Porter wrote to the Secretary of the Navy : " We 
have been unfortunate, hut not disgraced. Tlie defence of the 
Essex has not been less honorable to her officers and crew than 
the capture of an equal force ; and I now consider my situa- 
tion less unpleasant than that of Commodore Hillyar, Avho, in 
violation of every principle of honor and generosity, and re- 
gardless of the rights of nations, attacked the Essex in her 



A CRUISE IN JSORTIIERN SEAS. ]69 

crippled state within pistol-shot of a neutral shore, when for 
six weeks I had daily offered him fair and honorable combat."^ 

Wliile Commodore Porter was performing bold exploits on 
the calm Pacific seas in the summer of 1813, Commodore Rod- 
gers was out on a long cruise on the stormy Atlantic, on his 
favorite frigate, the President, 44 guns. He went to sea from 
Boston on the 30th of April, 1813, in company with the Con- 
gress, 38 guns, and returned to Newport, Rhode Island, after 
a cruise of one hundred and forty-eight days. He had capt- 
ured eleven English merchant-vessels; also, the British armed 
^(ihoowav Highflyer, under peculiar circumstances. 

Sailing north-easterly until the 8th of May, the President 
and Congress parted company, the former cruising more south- 
erly in quest of British ships engaged in trade with the West 
Indies. Finding none, Rodgers again turned the prow of his 
vessel northward, hoping to intercept vessels trading between 
the West Indies and Halifax, St. John and Quebec. He was 
equally unsuccessful in that region. After beating about in 
almost perpetual fogs, the President was off the Azores on the 
1st of June. 

Rodgers now determined to try his fortune in the North 
Sea; but he did not meet with a single vessel until he reached 
the Shetland Islands, where he found only Danish ships trading 
to England under British licenses. His supplies now began 
to fail, and he put into North Bergen, in Norway, for replen- 
ishment ; but a scarcity of food prevailed there, and he was 
able to obtain only water. Then he sought, in the high lati- 
tudes, English merchant-vessels that were to sail from Arch- 
angel at the middle of July. Instead of these, the President 

^ Commodore Porter died at Constantinople (where he was the United 
States resident Minister), on March 3d, 1843. His remains were brought 
to America, and they rest mider a neat marble monument in Woodlawn 
Cemetery, near Philadelphia. 

• 



1*70 STORY OF THE UNITED STATES NAVY. 

fell in with two British ships-of-war. Being unable to contend 
with them, she fled, closely pursued by her foes for more than 
eighty hours, and finally escaped. 

Just before he met these vessels Rodgers had captured two 
merchant-ships, and from them had replenished his stores. He 
now turned westward to intercept merchantmen going out of 
and into the Irish Channel. Before the 1st of August he capt- 
ured three vessels, when, informed that the British had a strong 
force in that vicinity, he made a complete circuit of Ireland and 
steered for the Banks of Newfoundland, near which he made 
two more captures. 

Rodgers finally sailed for the coast of the United States, and 
toward evening, September 23d, he fell in with the British 
sloop-of-war Highflyer, a tender to Admiral Warren's flag-ship 
*S'/. Domingo. She was a fast sailer, commanded by Lieuten- 
ant Hutchinson. Before his departure on his cruise, Rodgers 
had been put in possession of some of the British signals. He 
now caused them to be made on his own ship, and when he 
saw the Highflyer he hoisted an English ensign. She ran up 
the same, and displayed a signal from her mast-head. Rodgers 
was delighted to find that he possessed its complement, and the 
key to the Englishman's secrets. By stratagem Rodgers now 
decoyed the Highflyer along-side the President, and captured 
her without firing a gun. 

Rodgers had signalled that his vessel was the Sea Horse, the 
largest of its class known to be then on the American coast. 
The Highflyer bore down and hove to under the stern of the 
President. One of Rodgers's lieutenants, dressed in British 
uniform, went on board the Highflijer, bearing an order for 
Hutchinson to send him his signal-books to be altered, as " some 
of the Yankees," he said, " had obtained possession of them." 
The unsuspicious lieutenant obeyed, and so Rodgers was put in 
possession of the key to the whole correspondence of the Brit- 
ish Navv. 



AN ASTONISHED PRISONER. 17 1 

Hatcliinson soon followed his signal-books. Everything on 
the pretended Sea Horse — its appointments and the scarlet-clad 
marines whom he mistook for British soldiers — pleased him. 
He placed in Rodgers's hands a bundle of despatches for Ad- 
miral Warren, and lie informed his supposed friend of the Sea 
Horse that the main object of the admiral was the capture and 
destruction of the President, which had spread great alarm over 
British waters. 

" What kind of a man is Rodgers ?" the commodore in- 
quired. 

" I have never seen him," replied Hutchinson ; " but I have 
been told that he is an odd fish, and hard to catch." 

" Would you like to meet him ?" inquired the commodore. 

" Indeed I would, with a vessel of equal size," answered the 
lieutenant, assuming a posture that denoted great self-esteem. 

^^SirP^ said the commodore, in a tone that startled the 
young officer, " do you know what vessel you are on board 
of?" 

" Why, yes, sir, on board his Majesty's ship Sea Horsed 

"Then, sir," said the commodore, "you labor under a mis- 
take. You are on board the United States fi-igate President, 
and I am Commodore Rodgers, at your service." 

At that moment the band struck up "Yankee Doodle" on the 
President's quarter-deck, the American ensign was displayed 
over it, and the uniforms of the marines were suddenly changed 
from scarlet to blue. 

Lieutenant Hutchinson was astounded. He expected harsh 
treatment, for he was one of Cockburn's subalterns who, a few 
months before, had plundered Havre -de -Grace, the home of 
Rodgers (see page 97), and he wore at his side a sword which 
he 'had stolen from the commodore's house on that occasion ! 
He had been warned, when receiving his instructions as the 
commander of the Highflyer, to take care and not be outwitted 
by the Yankees, and especially careful not to fall into the hands 



1'72 



STORY OF THE UNITlfD STATES NAVY. 



of Commodore Rodgers ; " for if he comes across yon," said his 
superior officer, "he will hoist you upon his jib-boom and carry 
you into Boston." 

Rodgers treated the sinner with all the courtesy due to his 
rank and a prisoner of war, and he was soon paroled. Rodgers 
sailed into Newport harbor three days after the capture of the 
Highflyer^ accompanied by his prize, her commander, and fifty- 
five other prisoners. He had kept eleven vessels searching for 
him, captured eleven merchant- vessels, and two hundred and 
seventy-one prisoners, during his cruise. 




JOHN IlOOGt-KiJ. 



Commodore Rodgers sailed on another cruise early in De- 
cember. When fairly out on the ocean, the President captured 
the Cornet^ a small British cruiser, and, sailing southward, made 
a prize of a British merchantman near Barbaih^os, January 5th, 



J 



RODGEKS HONORED — HIS TOAST. 173 

1814. On the Vtb Rodgers captured a second vessel, and on 
the 9th a third. Then he ran down and cruised, unsuccessfully, 
in the Caribbean Sea. After sinking a British merchantman, 
he sailed for the coast of Florida, and then northward, chasing 
and being chased, and finally dashed through a vigilant British 
bloclvading squadron off Sandy Hook, and entered the harbor 
of New York on the evening of the ISth. 

Rodgers was greeted with applause and honors. A banquet 
was given in compliment to him at Tammany Hall, on the 'Zth 
of March, at which he gave the notable toast, which was re- 
peated everywhere: '''Peace — if it can be obtained without the 
sacrifice of national honor or the abandonment of maritime 
rights ; otherwise, war until peace shall be secured without 
the sacrifice of either." 

The name of Rodgers became associated with the other na- 
val heroes of the war in songs and toasts. In one of the former 
occur the words : 

" Our Rodgers, on the President^ 

Will burn, sink, and destroy ; 
The Congress^ on the Brazil coast. 

Your commerce will annoy; 
The EnKcx, on the South Sea, 

Will put out all your lights ; 
The flag she wears at mast-head 

Is 'Pree Trade and Sailor.i liif/hts.^^ 

Here we will close the story of the exploits of the little 
American Navy on the ocean in the year 1813. During the 
summer of that year the Americans had only three frigates 
afioat on the sea — the President, 44 guns; the Congress, 38 ; and 
i\\e Essex, 32. The Constitution, 44, was undergoing repairs; 
tlie Constellation, 38, was blockaded at Norfolk; while the Mac- 
edonian, 38, and United States, 44, were blockaded in the har- 
bor of New London ; the Adams, 28 guns, was undergoing 
repairs; the John Adams, 28, was laid up as unfit for the sor- 



174 STORY OF THE UNITEB STATES NAYY. 

vice, and the Neio York, 36, and Boston, 28, were virtually con- 
demned. All the brigs had been captured excepting the En- 
terjwise, and yet the Americans, with indomitable courage, de- 
termined to continue the war on the water with vigor. 

Encouragement came from the Great Lakes. Let us now 
turn to them and see what had been going on there during 
1812 and 1813. 



{ 



NAVAL VESSELS ON LAKE ONTARIO. 1 7d 



CHAPTER XIII. 

At the beginning of the war of 1812-15, or the Second War 
for Independence^^ the United States had made very little prep- 
aration for it on the extensive northern frontier of the Repnb- 
lic. Only. a single war-brig — the Oneida, Lieutenant Melanc- 
thon Woolsey — constituted the naval force on Lakes Ontario 
and Erie, the great inland seas, stretching along that frontier 
more than five hundred miles. She was built at Oswego, on 
Lake Ontario, and launched in 1809, for the purpose of sup- 
pressing illicit trade between the United States and Canada. 
She was the sole American war-vessel on the lakes when hos- 
tilities began in the summer of 1812. 

A month before the declaration of war, the Oneida had capt-. 
ured a Canadian schooner, charged with violating the neutrali- 
ty laws. When the news of that declaration reached Ogdens- 
burg, on the St. Lawrence, several American schooners lying 
there endeavored to escape up the river, but were intercepted 
at the foot of the Thousand Islands by a zealous Canadian 
partisan, in boats with armed volunteers, and two of them were 
captured. This was the first act of hostility on the lakes in 
the Second War for Independence. 

A squadron of British vessels had been quickly prepared at 
Kingston, at the foot of Lake Ontario, and, late in July, Wool- 

' When a compatriot i-emavked to Dr. Franklin that " the War of Inde- 
pendence" was successfully closed, "Say, rather," replied the sage, "the 
War of the Jievolution ; the War /or Independence is yet to be fought." It 
was fought, and the victory was won by the Americans, in the war of 
1812-'15. 



176 



STOEY OF THE UNITBD STATES NAVY. 



scy saw, from the mast-head of the Oneida, five armed vessels 
approaching Sackett's Harbor. These were the Royal George, 
24 gnns, whose keel was laid when the Oneida was a-buildinf ; 



m 



lli 




#iif 



iiiiH^' 




,^^'_ 



Prince Regent, 22 ; Earl o/Moira, 20 ; Slmcoe, 12 ; and Sejieca, 
12, under Commodore Earle, a Canadian. They captured a 
boat retiirnincr from St. Vincent, and, by its released crew, sent 



THE BRITISH ATTACK SACKETT's HAKBOR. 177 

word to the military coinniander at the harbor that all they 
wanted was the Oneida^ IG guns, and the schooher she had 
captured. At the same time they warned the inhabitants that, 
if the squadron should be fired upon, the town would be burnt. 

Woolsey tried to escape, with the Oneida, to the broad wa- 
ters of the lake, but failed. Returning, he moored his vessel so 
as to bring her broadside of nine guns to bear upon any ship 
entering the harbor. The remainder of her guns were taken 
out to be used on the shore, if needed. Already heavy guns 
had been placed in battery, and Woolsey took the general com- 
mand on land. His troops consisted of his own men, an artil- 
lery company, and militia. An old iron 32-pounder was put in 
charge of Sailing-master William Vaughan. 

As the Royal George, followed by the Prince Regent, came 
within cannon-shot of the battery (July 30th, 1812), Vaughan 
opened upon them without effect. Derisive laughter could be 
plainly heard on shore that came from the people on the Royal 
George. It was followed by some shots from the two vessels, 
which stood off and on, during a harmless combat for two hours. 
At length a 32-pound ball came over the bluff, and ploughed a 
deep furrow in the ground. It w^as caught up by a sergeant, 
who gave it to Yaughan, saying, 

"I've been playing ball with the red-coats, and have caught 
'em out. See if the British can catch back again." 

The ball fitted Vaughan's gun better than did his own, and 
it was hurled back with such precision that it struck the stern 
of the Royal George (then wearing to give a broadside), raked 
her completely, sent splinters as high as her mizzen-topsail yard, 
killed fourteen men, and wounded eighteen. Two of the other 
larger vessels had been injured. The laughter was changed 
to wailing. The squadron hastily put about and sailed from 
the harbor, while the band on shore played " Yankee Doodle." 
Nothing on the land had been injured by the cannonading on 
that serene Sabbath morninir. 



178 



STORY OF THE UNITED STATES NAVY. 



The command of the waters of Lake Ontario was an object 
of great importance to both parties. Tlie Americans proceeded 
to convert merchant-vessels into war-crafts, and their first care 
was to secure six schooners yet lying at Ogdensburg. The 




ISAAC OIJAUNCEV. 



British sent two armed vessels down to seize them ; the Amer- 
icans sent the schooner Julia, bearing three guns and sixty 
men, accompanied by a Durham boat with riflemen, to protect 
them and bring them away. They encountered the British 
vessels eleven miles above Ogdensburg, and, after a severe fight 
for three hours, so injured them that they withdrew to the 
Canada shore. The Julia was only slightly injured, and not 
one of the American vessels was hurt. They reached Ogdens- 
burg before morning. The armistice, effected soon afterward, 
enabled the Julia to return to the lake, with the six schooners, 
without molestation. 



CAPTAIN CHAUNCEY ON LAKE ONTARIO. 179 

Captain Isaac Chauncey, then at the head of tlie navy-yard at 
Brooldyn, New York, was appointed naval commander-in-chief 
on Lake Ontario at the close of August, 1812. He entered 
upon his duties with great energy. Woolsey purchased mer- 
chant-vessels, and six of them were soon made ready, bearing 
the respective names of Conquest, Growler, Pert, Scourge, Gov- 
ernor Tompkins, and Hamilton. Their armament consisted 
chiefly of long guns, mounted on circles, with a few lighter 
ones. These vessels, with the Oneida and Julia, constituted 
Chauncey's fleet, mounting only forty guns, and manned by 
an aggregate of four hundred and thirty men, the marines 
included. The British vessels on the lake had double their 
weight of metal. 

Chauncey first appeared on Lake Ontario, as commander of 
a squadron, on the 8th of November, 1812. The Oneida was 
his flag-ship, and was accompanied by six smaller vessels. He 
sought to. intercept the British squadron on its return from 
Fort George, at the mouth of the Niagara River, whither they 
had convoyed troops and provisions. On the 9th he fell in 
with the Royal George, and chased her into the Bay of Quinte. 
The dark night that followed hid her. Tlie next morning, just 
as Chauncey had captured and burnt a small schooner, he saw 
the fugitive headed for Kingston. With most of his squadron 
he gave chase, followed her into Kingston harbor, and fought 
her and shore batteries for an hour. Night coming on, Chaun- 
cey withdrew with a brisk wind, which increased to a gale the 
next morning. His smaller vessels captured a schooner, and 
sunk the British cruiser Seneca. 

The gale continued forty-eight hours, and ended in a furious 
snow-storm. But Chauncey bravely continued his cruise, de- 
termined to hold the supremacy of the lake. Leaving four 
vessels to blockade the harbor of Kingston until the ice should 
do so effectually, he sailed toward the head of the lake, hoping 
to fall in with the Prince Regent, then cruising off York, now 



180 



STORY OF THE UNITE*) STATES NAYY. 



Toronto. He failed to do so, and the season becoming tem- 
pestuous, he returned to Sackett's Harbor. Early in December 
navigation on the lake was closed by frost. 

On the surrender of Detroit by General Hull, in August, 
1812, a brig (Adams) lying at that place fell into the hands 
of the British. This, with some other vessels hastily prepared, 
gave them the complete control of Lake Erie. To deprive 
them of this ascendency, Lieutenant Jesse D. Elliott was sent 
to Buffalo to purchase and fit out vessels for war purposes. 
While he was engaged in that task, the Adams (now named 
Detroit) came down the lake with the brig Caledonia to pre- 
vent the preparation of war-craft at Buffalo. 




JESSE U. KLLIOTT. 



The two vessels anchored under the guns of Fort Erie, oppo- 
site Buffalo. Under the command of Elliott, an armed party 
of sailors and soldiers crossed the river at one o'clock in the 
morning of October 9th, 1812, boarded the two vessels with 




I 



PEKRY ORDERED TO LAKE ERIE. 183 

little resistance, and captured them. The Caledonia was taken 
into Buffalo Creek, but the Detroit, exposed to the guns of the 
fort, was abandoned at an island below, and afterward burnt. 
The Caledonia was a rich prize — her cargo being valued at 
$200,000. Congress gave Elliott their thanks and a sword. 
Thus closed naval warfare on the lakes in 1812. 

Both parties employed the winter in preparation for a spring 
campaign on the lakes. In November (1812) the Madison, 24 
guns, was launched at Sackett's Harbor, to carry 32-pound car- 
ronades. So rapid was her construction under the direction of 
the eminent ship-builder, Henry Eckford, that nine weeks from 
the time when the timber was felled in the forest she was afloat. 

At the close of 1812, the Americans had eleven armed ves- 
sels on Lake Ontario, ten of them merchant-vessels altered into 
war-ships. They were fitted up as gun-boats, without quarters. 
The British now laid the keel of a ship larger than the Madi- 
son; and in February, 1813, the Americans" began the con- 
struction of another large war-vessel at Sackett's Harbor. 

General Hull's advice to create a fleet on Lake Erie, before 
attempting to invade Canada, was unheeded. The wisdom of 
it was perceived before the close of 1812. Early in the next 
year measures were adopted to that end. On the iVth of Feb- 
ruary orders were given to Captain 0. H. Perry, then in com- 
mand of a flotilla in Narraganset Bay, to report to Chauncey 
with all his best men. Twenty hours after receiving the order. 
Perry left Newport in a sleigh for Lake Ontario, accompani»3d 
by his brother, then thirteen years of age, and arrived at Sack- 
ett's Hai'bor on the 3d of March. Perry was then twenty-sev- 
en years of age — brave, persevering, and ambitious. 

Chauncey sent Perry to Presque Isle (now Erie), on Lake 
Erie, to hasten and complete the construction and equipment 
of a little squadron then a-building there, under the direction 
of Sailing-master Daniel Dobbins, and Noah Brown a ship- 
wrioht of New York citv. He found five vessels well ad- 



184 



STOllY OF T.HE UNITED STATES NAVY. 



vanced and a sixth just begun. Two 20-gun brigs were launch- 
ed on the 24th of March, the day before Perry departed for 
the Niagara frontier to assist Chauncey in an attack upon Fort 
George, at the mouth of that river. Perry's fleet was built at 
the mouth of Cascade Creek. 




OLlVEll il. 



Fort George fell. Fort Erie was evacuated and burnt, and 
Perry was enabled to take from Buffalo, without molestation, 
five vessels which Eckford had fitted for the naval service, in 
the river below. Laden with stores, these sailed from Buffalo 
on the 13th of June — Perry, in the Caledonia, sick with symp- 
toms of a bilious fever. Just as the last vessel crossed the 
bar at Presque Isle, the British squadron, which had been look- 
ing out for them, appeared. 

Perry's fleet was finished on the 10th of July, but there w^ere 
only men enough to oflScer and man one biig, and he was com- 



PEKKY AMBITIOUS AND IMPATIENT. 



185 



pellcd to wait there several weeks before he could go out and 
uieet the ineuacing British fleet. His impatience was continu- 
jJly manifested by his urgent calls upon his superiors for men. 
To Chauncey he wrote on the 19th of July : 

" The enemy's fleet of six sail are now off the bar of this 
harbor. "What a golden opportunity, if we had men ! * ^' * 
Give me men, sir, and I will acquire, both for you and myself, 
honor and glorj^ or perish in the attempt. Conceive my feel- 
ings : an enemy within striking distance, my vessels ready, and 
not men enongh to man them !" A little later he wrote : " For 
God's sake, and yours and mine, send me men and officers, and 
I will have them all [the British squadron] in a day or two. 




lOUTII OF GASOAHE CREEK IN ISOU. 



* ^ * Commodore Barclay — the British commander — keeps just 
out of reach of our gun-boats. He has been bearding me sev- 
eral days; I long to be at him." 



186 STORY OF THE U^NITED STATES NAVY. 

Few and mostly inferior men — "a motley set, blacks, sol- 
diers, and boys," Perry said — were sent to him from Lake On- 
tario. He complained, but in vain. On the last day of Jif^y 
he had about three hundred officers and men at Presque Isle, 
and he resolved to man the two 20-gun brigs and eight smaller 
vessels with them, and seek the foe. The British squadron had 
gone to Maiden, on the Detroit River, to increase its force. The 
lake was calm ; and on the morning of August 5th, Perry's lit- 
tle squadron was out on its bosom. That night it started to- 
ward the Canada shore, on its first cruise. 

Captain Elliott brought a hundred men from Buffalo — on the 
9th — with which he manned the Niagara, and assumed com- 
mand of her. Then Perry resolved to sail up the lake, and 
co-operate with the land troops of General Harrison. He ap- 
prised that officer of his readiness, but Harrison was not then 
prepared to act, and Perry cruised on the lake, hoping to en- 
gage Barclay in combat, but failed to do so. Perry's fleet had 
Put-in-Bay for its rendezvous or gathering-place. 

The Lake Erie fleet now consisted of the brig Laivrence, 20 
guns ; brig Niagara, 20 ; brig Caledonia, 3 ; schooner Ariel, 4 ; 
schooner Scorpion, 2, and two swivels ; sloop Trippe, 1 ; schooner 
Tigress, 1 ; and schooner Porcupine, 1. The British squadron 
consisted of the ship Detroit, 19 guns, one on pivot, and two 
howitzers; ship Queen Charlotte, Yl guns, and one howitzer; 
schooner Lady Provost, 13 guns, and one howitzer; brig Hunt- 
er, \0 guns; sloop Little Belt, 3 guns; and schooner Chip- 
pewa, 1 gun, and two swivels. 

August wore away, and more than a week of September 
had passed before Perry's ardent wishes were gratified by an 
encounter with his enemy. 

"September the tenth, full well I ween, 
In eighteen hundred and thirteen, 
The weather mild, the sky serene, 
Commanded bv bold Perrv, 




:i;iff!''r'''''iii''iSk 
■liijV'i* 



perry's battle-flag. 189 

Our saucy fleet at anchor lay 
In safety, moor'd at Put-in-Bay; 
'Twixt sunrise and the break of day 
The British fleet 
We chanced to meet ; 
Our admiral thought he would them greet, 
With a welcome on Lake Erie." 

Old Song. 

On that beautiful September morning the welcome cry of 
"Sail ho !" rung out loud from the mast-head of the Lawrence. 
Perry's orders for an expected engagement had been given to 
his officers the night before. At the cry of " Sail ho !" the 
fleet was signalled — "Enemy in sight!" "Get under way!" 
and the voices of the boatswains sounded the stirring orders — 
"All hands up anchor, ahoy!" At sunrise the British vessels 
were seen on the north-western horizon. 

At a little past ten o'clock the Lawrence was cleared for ac- 
tion, and Perry brought out a blue battle-flag, upon which were 
inscribed, in large white letters, the reputed dying words of 
Lawrence (see page 142), 

"DON'T GIVE UP THE SHIP!" 

Perry concluded a brief harangue to his men by saying, 
" My brave lads ! this flag contains the last words of Captain 
Lawrence. Shall I hoist it ?" 

" Ay, ay, sir," they all shouted ; and aloft went the flag to 
the main-royal mast-head, greeted with cheer after cheer, not 
only from the officers and crew of the Lawrence^ but of the 
whole squadron. It was the signal for battle. 

The Niagara, Captain Elliott, led the fleet. Barclay's ves- 
sels were near together, the Detroit (his flag-ship) in the van. 
At noon a bugle sounded on board the Detroit as a signal for 
action ; the British bands struck up " Rule, Britannia," and a 
24-pound shot was sent over the water from the Detroit to- 
ward the Lawrence. It fell short ; but a few minutes afterward 



190 



STORY OF THE UNITED STATES NAYY. 



another sliot from Barclay's long guns went crashing through 
the bulwarks of the Laivrence. The latter kept silent. " Steady, 
boys ! steady," said Perry, while his dark eyes flashed with ex- 
citement half smothered by his judgment. 







PEBEV 8 BATTLE-FLAG. 



Perry knew the advantage possessed by Barclay with his long 
guns, and he determined to fight at close quarters. Slowly his 
squadron approached the foe, and at the proper moment sig- 
nals were given for each vessel to engage her prescribed antag- 
onist. The gallant young Champlin, of the Scorpion, then less 
than twenty-four years of age, fired the first (as he did the last) 
gun in that famous battle. His vessel, with the Ariel, both 
without bulwarks, kept their places with the Lawrence. 

The contest that followed was exceedingly severe. The Law- 
rence w^as the target for the heavier guns of the English, no less 
than thirty-four of them being brought to bear upon her ; and 



perry's fearful passage from ship to ship. 191 

for two hours Perry and his devoted ship bore the brunt of 
battle. Daring that tempest of war his vessel was terribly 
shattered. Her rigging was nearly all shot away ; her sails 
were torn into shreds; her spars were battered into splinters; 
her guns were dismounted ; and she lay upon the waters an 
almost helpless wreck. Out of one hundred and three men, 
twenty-two were slain and sixty-one wounded. Balls had gone 
crashing through the cockpit, killing the wounded there. 

The Niagara had lagged behind — the swift, staunch, well- 
manned Niagara. She did not come to the relief of the help- 
less and severely wounded Laivrence, but Perry went to her — an 
exploit at that hour of peril, one of the most gallant on record. 
He determined to fly to her, and, bearing down with her upon 
his foe, secure a victory. So certain did he feel of ultimate 
triumph, and having occasion to receive guests, that he ex- 
changed his sailor's suit for the uniform of his rank. Leaving 
the gallant and thrice-wounded Yarnell in charge of the Law- 
rence^ the colors of which were yet flying, he entered a boat 
with his little brother and four stout seamen, and standing- 
erect, with the pennant and battle-flag half folded around him, 
he pushed off for the Niagara, half a mile distant. 

The hero, now so conspicuous, was made a special mark for 
the missiles of his antagonists. Barclay knew that if the man 
who had fouglit the Latvrence so bravely reached the Niagara, 
the British squadron would be in great danger of defeat. For 
fifteen minutes, during Perry's fearful voyage in the open boat, 
the great and little guns of the British, by Barclay's order, 
were brought to bear upon him, but he received no bodily harm 
from cannon-balls, grape-shot, canister, and musket bullets 
showered upon him. Oars were splintered, bullets traversed 
the boat, and his oarsmen were covered with spray caused by 
the fall of round shot near the boat, but not a person was 
hurt. Perry sprung on board of the Niagara, took the 
command, bore down upon the British, and broke their line. 



192 STORY OF THE UNITBTD STATES NAVY. 

For awhile the whole American squadron was engaged in the 
combat. 

Eight minutes after Perry dashed through the British line 
the colors of the Detroit were lowered, and her example was 
followed at once by all the other British vessels. The battle 
had lasted three hours. When the smoke cleared away, it was 
discovered that the vessels of the two squadrons w^ere inter- 
mingled. The victory w^as complete. As soon as it was as- 
sured, Perry wrote in pencil on the back of an old letter, resting 
the paper on his navy cap, that remarkable despatch to General 
Harrison, the first sentence of which has been so often repeated : 




FAC-SIMII.E OF PERKY 8 DESPATCH. 



"TFe have met the enemy ^ and they are ours! Two ships, 
two brigs, one schooner, and one sloop. 

"Yours, wdth great respect and esteem, 

" O. H. Perry." 

The next movement in the solemn drama was the reception 
of the British officers — the expected guests of Perry — who 
delivered to him their swords. Barclay had been severely 



THE BRITISH CARICATURED. 



193 



wounded. All of the captives were treated with great courte- 
sy and kindness. The bodies of the slain were buried in the 
deep waters of the lake, at the twilight hour of that beautiful 




September day, after the impressive burial-service of the An- 
glican Church had been read. 

This victory proved to be one of the most important events 
of the war. It saved the Western States from invasion I^y 

9* 



ir 
194 STORY OF THE UNITI^ STATES NAYY. 

British and Indians, and it opened the way for Harrison to 
recover what Hall had lost, and more. It lifted the pall of 
despondency which reverses to the land troops had spread over 
the land, and there was great jubilation everywhere. The ef- 
fect upon the country was electric, and aniaznigly inspiring. 
It dissipated forebodings of evil. The popular joy was de- 
monstrated in oratory and song; and caricature took a hu- 
morous part in the general rejoicings. (See page 192.) 

Ilkiminations of cities followed the great victory. The 
newspapers teemed with eulogies of Perry and his companions. 
The Legislature of Pennsylvania voted him thanks and a gold 
medal^. also a silver medal to every man engaged in the battle. 
The National Congress voted thanks and a gold medal to both 
Perry and Elliott, and silver medals to the nearest relatives of 
young officers who were slain. Three months' extra pay was 
allowed to each of the commissioned officers of the navy and 
army who served in the battle ; and a sword to each of the mid- 
shipixien and sailing-masters. In 1860, a fine statue of Perry, 
by Walcutt, was erected. 

One of the most popular songs of the day, called American 
Perry, was inspired by this victory. It began as follows : 

" Bold Barclay one day to Proctor^ did say, 
' I'm tired of Jamaica and cherry ; 
So let us go down to that new floating town, 
And get sorae American Perry."^ 
Oh, cheap American Perry ! 
Most pleasant American Perry ! 
We need only bear down, knock and call, 
And we'll have the American Perry !" 

^ General Proctor was then at Maiden with a force of British and In- 
dians, waiting for the capture of Perry's fleet, to press forward into Ohio 
and attack Harrison's army. Barclay sailed from Maiden to attack Perry 
with full assurance of victory. 

2 Perry is a beverage made of the juice of tlie pear. 




PE key's statue at CLKVEI.ANl). 



WAR-VESSELS BUILT ON LAKE ONTARIO. 197 



CHAPTER XIV. 

The campaign on the northern frontier opened early in the 
spring of 1813. General Dearborn, the commander-in-chief of 
the land-forces, had about three thousand men at Sackett's 
Harbor, in March, when he contemplated an attack upon 
Kingston. He wisely concluded to defer that expedition until 
Kingston harbor, where the British squadron lay, should be 
clear of ice, and then he could have the co-operation of Chaun- 
cey's vessels. 

Eckford, the naval constructor, had been directed to build 
six sloops-of-war on Lakes Erie and Ontario, and the President 
was authorized to purchase as many more vessels, to be convert- 
ed into warriors, as the exigencies of the service on the lakes 
might require. Early in April the brig Jefferson was launched 
at the harbor, and the keel of the General Pike was laid. A 
few days later the British launched two large vessels at King- 
ston, and at the same time there arrived there a large number 
of seamen from the Royal Navy. On the 15th of April the 
ice in the lake disappeared, and Chauncey sent out the Growler 
to reconnoitre. At this time the effective land and naval force 
at the harbor consisted of about five thousand regulars and 
twelve -months volunteers, two thousand militia, and thirteen 
hundred sailors. 

General Dearborn and Commodore Chauncey now matured 
a plan for first capturing York (now Toronto), and then re- 
ducing Fort George at the mouth of the Niagara River. At 
the same time, troops were to cross the Niagara River near 



198 



STORY OF THE UNITED STATES NAVY. 



Buffalo, capture Forts Erie and Chippewa, join the fleet and 
army at Fort George, and all proceed to attack Kingston. 

The expedition sailed from the harbor on the 25th of April 
in Chauncey's vessels, which were crowded with soldiers, about 
seventeen hundred in number, and appeared before York on 
the 27th. Dearborn was ill, and the command of the land 
troops was intrusted to General Zebulon M. Pike. 




YOEK IN 1813. 



The troops landed under cover of the guns of the squadron, 
in the face of a sharp fire of musketry. The British were 
steadily pushed back along the lake shore to York. At the 
same time Chauncey's guns were pouring storms of grape-shot 
upon the foe, which so frightened the Indian allies of the Brit- 
ish that they took to their heels. The tempest also quickened 
the retreat of the white troops. 

At length the British reached their stronghold nearest the 
town, and the firing ceased. The Americans expected to see a 
white flag displayed, in token of surrender, when suddenly the 
earth trembled and a terrible explosion occurred. The British, 
despairing of holding the fort, had blown up their magazine on 
the water's edge. Fragments" of timber and huge stones were 
scattered in every direction over a space of several hundred 



EXPLOSION OF THE MAGAZINE AT YORK. 



199 



yards, killing fifty-two Americans and wounding one hundred. 
At the same time forty of the British lost their lives, so badlv 
was the affair managed. 

Among the mortally wounded Americans, struck by the fly- 
ing missiles, was General Pike. He was taken in a boat to the 
commodore's flag-ship Madison in a dying condition. On his 
passage shouts fell upon his benumbed ears. 

" What does it mean ?" he feebly asked. 

"Victory!" answered a sergeant. "The British union-jack 
is coining down from the block-house, and the stars and stripes 
are going up." 

A smile of joy lighted the hero's face. He lived only a few 
hours. While he was yet conscious, the captured British flag- 
was brought to him. He made a sign to his attendants to place 
it under his head, and soon afterward he expired. His body was 
taken to Sackett's Harbor, and buried within Fort Tompkins 
there with military honors. 




rOWDEK MAGAZINE AT THE WATERS EDGE. 



Soon after the surrender of York the expedition sailed for 
the Niagara River. When the troops were debarked, four miles 
east of Fort Niagara, Chauncey sailed for Sackett's Harbor to 
obtain supplies and re-enforcements for the army, while his 



200 STORY OF THE UNITED STATES NAVY. 

smaller vessels were continually engaged in conveying stores and 
troops to Dearborn's camp. At that point the Madison ar- 
rived, on the 25tli of May, with three hundred and fifty troops. 
That evening Chauncey was delighted by the arrival of Com- 
modore Perry, who had come from Lake Erie to join him in 
the immediate work before him. 

Arrangements were made for the attack on Fort George and 
its supporting batteries on the 27tli. During the previous 
night all the heavy artillery, and as many troops as possible, 
were placed on board the Madison, Oneida, and Lady of the 
Lake, with orders for the remainder to follow in the other ves- 
sels. Generals Dearborn and Lewis were on the Madison, and 
between three and four o'clock in the morning the squadron 
weighed anchor. A flotilla of launches had been prepared for 
landing the troops, and these were placed under the manage- 
ment of the skilful Perry. 

A heavy sea was rolling when the expedition reached the 
designated place for debarkation, making the landing diflieult. 
The guns of the Tompkins soon . silenced a British battery on 
the shore, when Perry dashed through the surf with his flotilla 
of launches, and safely landed the men. So eager were Colonel 
Winfield Scott and Commodore Perry to reach the shore, that 
they leaped into the shallow water and waded to the beach, 
followed by the soldiers. A sharp struggle ensued, but lasted 
only about twenty minutes, when a severe cannonade from the 
Hamilton, and the well directed fire of the American troops, 
caused the British to break, and flee in confusion. The whole 
body fled toward Queenstown, closely pursued by Scott. Gen- 
eral Vincent ordered the guns of Fort George to be spiked, 
and the post abandoned. Victory for the Americans was com- 
plete. Chauncey sailed for Sackett's Harbor on the 31st of 
May. 

Early in June (1813) a British squadron, under Sir James 
Lucas Yeo, hovered along the southern coast of Lake Ontario, 



THE BRITISH AT SODUS BAY. 



201 



and captured two or three American vessels laden with hospital 
stores for the army. They captured stores at Charlotte, at the 




mouth of the Genesee River. Landing at Sodus Bay for the 
same purpose, they were foiled by the vigilance of the inhab- 



202 



STORY OF THE UNITE» STxVTES NAVY. 



itants, who hid the stores ; and when they departed they burnt 
the emptied public store-houses and some private buildings. 

When the British at Kingston were informed that Dearborn 
and Chauncey had gone to attack Fort George, they determined 
to attempt the capture of Sackett's Harbor, and the seizure or 

destruction of the military 
and naval munitions of war 
'^ '^ gathered there. If they 

/ could do this, the sover- 

eignty of Lake Ontario 
would be secured to the 
British. This enterprise 
was soon attempted. On 
the evening of the very 
day when the victory at 
Fort George w'as accom- 
plished (May 27th, 1813), 
the Lady of the Lake, 
which had been cruising 
off Kingston, brought to Sackett's Harbor the starthng news 
that a strong British squadron under Sir James L. Yeo had just 
put to sea, and its probable destination was Sackett's Harbor. 

This news caused great commotion. General Jacob Brown, 
then at his home a few miles distant from the lake, immedi- 
ately summoned the militia of the district to rally at the har- 
bor, whither he proceeded and took the chief command. The 
people of the surrounding country flocked thither in large num- 
bers, and w^ere armed and mustered into the service. Quite a 
body of defenders were gathered there when, at noon on the 
28th, the British squadron appeared. It consisted of the Roy- 
al George, 24 guns (the flag-ship); Earl of Moira, 18 guns; 
schooners Prince Regent, Simcoe, and Seneca, 10 to 12 guns 
each, and about forty bateaux'^ bearing about twelve hundred 
land troops. The whole expedition was under the direction 




DESTEUOTION AT SODFS BAY. 



A BRITISH FORCE BEFORE SACKETT S HARBOR. 



203 



of Sir George. Prevost, the Governor-general of Canada, who 
led the land forces. 

The British troops were embarked in boats to go ashore, 
when suddenly they were recalled, and tlie squadron sailed 
away, to the astonishment of everybody. The commander had 
seen an American flotilla of nineteen armed boats approaching 
from the west, conveying re-enforcements to the harbor. This 
flotilla was chased and run ashore. Twelve of the boats and 
seventy of the men were captured. At dawn the next morning 
(May 29th), thirty-three British boats, filled with armed men, 




^^^m 



LIGllT-llOCSE ON HOKSE ISLAND. 



landed, under cover of two gun-boats, near the light-house on 
Horse Island, close by Sackett's Harbor. 

The British formed on the little island, pressed across the 
fordable strait to the main-land, and opened fire upon the mili- 
tia. These at once broke and fled, excepting one company. 



204 STORY OF THE UNITED STATES NAVY. 

General Brown was astonished at the cowardice of the troops. 
By very great exertions, a sufficient number were rallied to join 
with other troops in carrying on a sharp conflict for some time. 
Finally, Prevost, perceiving his communication with his boats 
seemingly menaced, became alarmed, and sounded a retreat. 
The invaders fled precipitately to their boats, embarked, and 
reached the squadron in safety. Then the whole expedition 
sailed away to Kingston, fruitless of any gain. 

In the panic that prevailed when the militia fled, Wolcott 
Ohauncey, of the navy, who had the naval stores at the har- 
bor in charge, informed that all was lost, fired a train that was 
prepared for the purpose, and in a few minutes the store- 
house, containing the vast spoils from York, and the new ship 
General Pike^ were in flames. When the British fled these 
flames were extinguished, and the Pike was saved. Three oth- 
er vessels there were also saved. No other attempt was after- 
ward made by the British to capture Sackett's Harbor. 

Intelligence of the fact that the British sqnadron was out 
on the lake reached Chauncey while lying at the mouth of the 
Niagara River. He weighed anchor, crossed the lake, looked 
into York, and then ran for Kingston ; but finding no foe, he 
proceeded to Sackett's Harbor, where he used every exeition 
to put the new ship General Pike (not much injured by the 
fire) afloat. She was launched on the 12th of June, and placed 
under the command of Captain Arthur St. Clair. But it was 
late in the summer before she was fully equipped and manned. 
She was pierced for twenty-six long 24-pounders. 

The Americans had not force sufficient to hold York after 
it was surrendered in April, and being of little value to them, 
it was abandoned. The British repossessed themselves of it, 
built another block-house, and constructed a regular fortifica- 
tion. 

After the capture of Fort George, at the close of May, Chaun- 
cev made cruises about the lake. He had twelve vessels, and 



EFFECT OF A HURKICANE OX LAKE ONTARIO. 205 

made the British very circumspect. He felt strong enough to 
cope with any force that might appear under Sir James Yeo. 

In July, an expedition against the British post at Burling- 
ton Heights, at the head of Lake Ontario, was undertaken. 
Colonel Scott commanded the land troops, but the chief com- 
mand of the expedition was given to Chauncey. He appeared 
at the mouth of the Niagara River with his fleet, and on the 
27th of July sailed westward with three hundred land troops. 
The British sent re-enforcements from York and other points, 
and the Americans found their own forces too feeble to un- 
dertake an attack with a prospect of success. Informed of the 
defenceless state of York, the expedition turned eastward and 
entered the harbor at that village on the 31st of July, when 
Scott landed without opposition, took possession, burnt the 
barracks, public store-houses and stores, and eleven transports, 
destroyed five cannons, and carried away one great gun and a 
considerable quantity of provisions. 

The expedition returned to the Niagara on the 3d of August, 
and four days afterward a British squadron under Yeo appear- 
ed near there. Chauncey immediately went out to meet his foe. 
He had thirteen vessels, but only three of them had been origi- 
nally built for war purposes. Sir James Yeo's squadron consist- 
ed of two ships, two brigs, and two large schooners, all con- 
structed for war. All day the squadrons manneuvred for the 
weather-gage with a good breeze, but did not come in contact. 

At sunset there was a dead calm, and at midnight a fitful 
gale. Suddenly a rushing sound was heard astern nearly all 
of the fleet, and it was soon ascertained that a little tornado 
had swept over the lake and capsized the Hamilton, Lieutenant 
Winter, and the Scourge, Mr. Osgood, which were lagging be- 
hind. They went to the bottom of the lake, and all the of- 
ficers and men, excepting sixteen, were drowned. The two 
vessels carried an aggregate of 19 guns, and were staunch. 

The next day Chauncey endeavored to bring Yeo into action, 



206 



STORY OF THE UNITED STATES NAVY. 



but in vain ; and the American fleet anchored at the mouth of 
tlie Niagara River. The hike was swept by fitful squalls all 
that night, accompanied by lightning and rain. 




TOnNADO ON LAKK ONTARIO. 



Another day and night were spent by Chauncey in trying 
to engage Yeo ; and finally, on the morning of the 10th, hav- 
ing the weather-gage, the American commodore prepared for 
battle. All day was again spent in manoeuvring ; but at ten 
o'clock at night the British gave chase, and two of Chaun- 
cey's vessels {Growler and Julia), in the excess of the zeal of 
their commanders, ran out of the prescribed line, and were capt- 
ured. Very little fighting occurred ; and a gale increasing, 
Chauncey ran into Sackett's Harbor on the 13th. A new 
vessel, the Sylph, was now launched at the harbor; and, sick- 



NAVAL BATTLE ON LAKE ONTAlilO. 207 

ness prevailing in the fleet, Chaiincey lay inactive there for 
some time. 

Again, early in September, Chauncey attempted to bring Yeo 
to an engagement, but failed. It being important to protect 
the harbors of Canada, the baronet had been instructed by his 
superiors to risk nothing, but to keep Chauncey employed. 
But Sir James came near being compelled to fight on the day 
after the battle on Lake Erie, when his squadron lay becalmed 
off the mouth of the Genesee River. Catching a light breeze, 
Chauncey bore down upon him, but the British squadron, also 
catching the wind, escaped, not, however, without many wounds 
inflicted by the American guns. 

A fortnight later Chauncey, informed that the British squad- 
ron was in York harbor, sailed across the lake with the Pike, 
Madison, and Sylph, each with a schooner in tow, when Sir 
James fled, followed by the commodoj^efWliose vessels were 
in battle order, and having the advantage of the weather- 
gage. The baronet was now compelled to fight, or cease his 
foolish boastino; of a desire to measure streno-th with the 
Americans. 

At about noon (September 28th) a battle began, the Pike 
gallantly sustaining the assaults of the heaviest of her antag- 
onists, assisted part of the time by the Tompkins and Madison. 
The Wolfe, Sir James'*s flag-ship, was soon so seriously injured 
that she could no longer sustain a conflict. As the smoke 
cleared away, she was seen fleeing before the wind, crowded 
with canvas, and protected by the Royal George. A general 
chase and a running fight for some time ensued. It was con- 
tinued toward Burlington Bay for two hours, when, for want of 
proper support, and the wind increasing, Chauncey prudently 
called off his vessels and ran into the Niagara River, where 
they lay during a gale that lasted forty-eight hours. Alhiding 
to this battle and chase, Henry C. Lewis wrote, in a ballad of 
many stanzas — 



208 STORY OF THE UNITED STATES NAVY. 

• 

" Prepare, again prepai-e your joyful songs, 

The hero of Ontario to greet ; 
A grateful nation's praise again belongs 

To Chauncey, whom all foeraen dread to meet ! 
Through boasting Yeo's fleet he sailM victorious, 
And now his honor'd name through all the world is glorious. 

The vaunting Briton flies. 

Brave Chauncey ' Victory !' cries, 
And in the flying full many a foeman dies." 

All tlie American transports, with troops, having departed 
for Sackett's Harbor, on the 2d of October Chauncey went out 
again in search of Sir James Yeo and his vessels. The weather 
was thick, and the Lady of the Luke, sent to reconnoitre Bur- 
lington Bay, brought information that the British fleet was not 
there. Then Chauncey sailed toward Kingston in his search, 
and on the evening of the 5th the Pike captured three British 
transports ; also the Sylph, a cutter and an armed transpoil. 
The whole number of prisoners then taken was two hundred 
and sixty -four. Among these were officers of the Royal Navy, 
the provincial marines, and the army. 

During the remainder of the season the British vessels re- 
mained inactive in Kingston harbor, and Commodore Chaun- 
cey was employed in watching its movements and in aiding 
land troops under Wilkinson in their preparations for de- 
scending the St. Lawrence to attack Montreal. Chauncey had 
undisputed control of Lake Ontario at the close of 1813. 

While the waters of Lakes Ontario and Erie were vexed by 
the contests of hostile fleets on their bosom during the year 
1813, the usual quiet of Lake Champlain, in northern New 
York, was slightly disturbed by like movements. In the fall 
of 1812 Lieutenant Thomas Macdonough was placed in com- 
mand of the naval force on that lake, consisting of only two 
gun-boats, lying in Basin Harbor, on the Vermont shore. Two 
small sloops and four bateaux were fitted up and armed, each 
carrying a long 18-pounder. The British had two or three 



i 



AN ENGAGEMENT ON THE SUltEL. 



209 



gun-boats and armed galleys in the Sorel River, the outlet of 
the lake. 

Daring the winter of 1812-13 two sloops {Groivler and 
Eagle) were built on Lake Champlain, and put aHoat in the 
spring. Early in June news came to Macdonough that Ameri- 
can lake craft had been captured by two British gun-boats at 
the foot of the lake, and he sent the two sloops, with over one 
hundred armed men, under Lieutenant Joseph Smith, to look 
into the matter. Going down the Sorel, they gave chase to 
three gun-boats, until thev came within rano-e of the o-uns on 




THOAl.VB MAODONOUGU. 



Isle an Noix, when they retreated up the river. They were 
followed by the row-galleys, which soon opened long 24-pound- 
ers upon the sloops. 

At the same time a British land-force went up each side of 
the nari'ow river, and poured volleys of musketry upon the 
Americans on the vessels. These were answei-ed by grape-shot. 

10 



210 STOKY OF THE UNITED STATES NAVY. 

For four hours a running figbt was kept up. Finally, a heavy 
cannon-shot tore off a plank of the Eagle below water, and she 
sunk. At about the same time the Growler, disabled, was run 
ashore, when the people of both vessels were made prisoners. 
The British refitted the sloops, and took them into their ser- 
vice with the names, respectively, of Finch and Chubb. Mac- 
donoug'h recaptured them the next year. 

This loss stimulated Macdonough to greater exertions, and 
at the beginning of August he had fitted up and armed three 
sloops and six gun-boats. No other events of great importance 
occurred that year on the bosom of Lake Champlain, excepting 
the passage of three British gun-boats, two sloops-of-war, and 
forty-seven long-boats, that conveyed land troops to Plattsburg. 
These plundered the inhabitants of that village of property 
valued at $25,000. 



BRITISH EXPEDITION TO OSWEGO. 211 



CHAPTER XV. 

The Americans and British both used great exertions during 
the winter of 1813-14 to increase their naval strength on Lake 
Ontario, in order that they might contend for sovereignty over 
its waters in the ensuing campaign. In February Eckford laid 
the keels of three vessels at Sackett's Harbor. One was a frig- 
ate named Superior, to be armed with 66 guns, and two bi'igs, 
named, respectively, Jefferson and Jones, to carry 22 guns each. 
The two brigs were ready for service, excepting their full arma- 
ment, at the close of April ; and the frigate was launched on 
the 2d of May, just eighty days after her keel was laid. At 
the same time, heavy vessels were a-building at Kingston. 

The naval stores and heavy guns designed for the frigate 
were at Oswego Falls, several miles above Oswego. To seize 
or destroy these stores was a prime object of the British ; and 
early in May the squadron of Sir James Yeo sailed from Kings- 
ton for the former place. It was so much more powerful 
than Chauncey's at that time, that the latter remained in Sack- 
ett's Harbor for awhile. Sir James had eight vessels, carrying 
an aggregate of 222 guns, besides those on gun -boats and 
smaller craft. 

The British squadron appeared off Oswego on the 5th of 
May. A fort there, mounting only six old guns, and a garri- 
son of less than three hundred men, under Colonel Mitchell, 
with the schooner Growler, Captain Woolsey, lying in the river, 
constituted the defences of the place. To prevent the Growler 
falling into the hands of the British, she was sunk, and, pitch- 
ing tents near the town so as to deceive his antagonist as to 



212 



STORY OF THE UNITE© STATES NAVY. 



his force, Mitchell gathered all his troops into the fort on the 
east side of the river, and sent out messengers to arouse the 
militia. A slight attack was made upon the fort that after- 
noon, when the fleet withdrew, Sir James believing there was a 
formidable force near the town. 




SIK JA.MI-S LUCAS Y£0. 



Next morning the fleet again appeared, and the larger vessels 
opened on the fort. About twelve hundred men were landed 
in the afternoon. A sharp fire was opened upon them from 
the garrison and on their flanks, and for awhile there was des- 
perate fighting. Mitchell could not contend long with such 
numbers, and he retired up the river to a position where he 
might defend the naval stores at the Falls if necessary. The 
British took possession of and dismantled the fort, burnt the 
barracks, raised the Growler, And with this vessel and consider- 
able plunder sailed away. The British troops were landed at 



WOOLSEY's flotilla leaves OSWEGO. 213 

Kingston, where the vessels were repaired. In the battle at 
Oswego they had been considerably injured ; and of their 
people, nineteen had been killed and seventy-five wounded. 

Within a fortnight after this attack the British squadron 
blockaded Sackett's Harbor, where Chauncey w^as bending ev- 
ery energy to get the Superior ready for sea. Heavy guns and 
cables destined for her use w^ere yet at Oswego Falls. The 
roads were too heavy to transport tliem to the harbor by land. 
Something must be done, or Sir James would roam the lake 
as a conqueror. The gallant "Woolsey declared that he w^ould 
take them safely to Stony Creek, three miles from the harbor, 
whence they might be carried across a narrow portage. 

" Try it," said Chauncey ; and before the close of May 
(1814) Woolsey had a large number of the guns and naval 
stores in scows ready to proceed whenever the blockading 
squadron might become less vigilant. 

On the evening of the 28th of May Woolsey left Oswego, 
with a flotilla of nineteen boats laden with cannons and naval 
stores. Among the latter was an immense cable for the Su- 
perior. On the flotilla was Major iVppling, with one hundred 
riflemen ; and about the same number of Oneida Indians were 
to meet them at the shore several miles eastward, and keep 
abreast of them on the land, to assist in case of an attack. 
The night was very dark ; but the flotilla and Indians were at 
the mouth of Big Sandy Creek at noon the next day. They 
went up that stream some distance, and the boats were moored 
just above a bend in the creek which there ran about two miles 
through an oozy plain before entering the lake. 

During the night one of the boats had fallen out of the line 
and been captured. By its crew Sir James was informed of 
the flotilla, and he sent two gun-boats to capture it. They 
entered the Big Sandy Creek, then fringed with trees and 
shrubbery. Some rods below the bend in the creek, Appling 
had placed his riflemen and Indians in ambush ; and near the 



214 



STORY OF THE UNITEQ STATES NAVY. 



flotilla there had gathered about tliree luindred horse, foot, and 
artillery from Sackett's Harbor, with two small field-pieces. 




Ignorant of any land-forces with tlie flotilla, the British, in 
jolly mood, pushed up the creek with their gun-boats, feeling 
sure of their prey. When they came in sight of the flotilla 



1 



TRAJ^ SPORTING A CABLE ON LAND. 215 

they be^an to hurl solid shot upon it, but with little effect. 
They sent out flanking parties on shore, and showered grape- 
shot into the bushes to clear them of enemies if they were 
there. Before this storm the cowardly Indians ran, but young 
Appling's riflemen stood firm. At a proper moment rifle bul- 
lets and cannon-balls assailed the invaders so furiously that, as- 
tounded and confused, they surrendered in ten minutes, with 
the loss of the gun-boats, and over one hundred officers and 
men made prisoners. 

The cannons and stores were landed and transported overland, 
sixteen miles, to the harbor. The great cable for the Superior 
was too heavy to be conveyed on any wheeled vehicle, for it 
weighed nine thousand six hundred pounds, and had formed 
the entire burden of one of the boats of the flotilla. Two 
hundred men volunteered to carry it on their shoulders, and 
they did so, a mile at a time without resting. The great rope 
and other materials reached the Superior in safety ; but Chaun- 
cey's fleet did not get ready to leave the harbor until August. 

Meanwhile a land and naval expedition had attempted to 
capture Mackinaw. A squadron under St. Clair, composed of 
the Niagara, Caledonia, St. Lawrence, Scorjyion, and Tigress, 
bearing nearly a thousand land troops under Colonel Croghan, 
went from the Detroit River early in July, destroyed the es- 
tablishment of the British North-west Fur Company at the 
Falls of St. Mary, and then attacked the British post at Mack- 
inaw. The expedition was repulsed. Cruising in that vicini- 
ty, the Tigress and Scorpion were captured in September, and 
their people were sent prisoners to Mackinaw. 

On the retirement of Napoleon to Elba, and the dawn of 
peace upon Europe, the British Government sent many unem- 
ployed troops to Canada, a large portion of them Wellington's 
veterans. They arrived at Quebec in July, 1814, and were 
pressed forward to Montreal, where Sir George Prevost was 
making preparations to invade northern New York. 



216 STORY OF THE UNITED STATES NAVY. 

Meanwhile the British naval force in the Sorel had been 
strengthened, and in May Captain Pring- of tlie Royal Navy, 
in the brig Linnet, accompanied by five gun-boats, entered 
Lake Champlain for the purpose of destroying or capturing 
Macdonough's little flotilla, which lay in a Vermont harbor. 
After some conflicts, and losing several men, the Bi-itish re- 
turned to the Sorel wiser than when they left it. A few days 
afterward, Captain Macdonough sailed out upon the lake with 
his flotilla, and anchored his vessels in Cumberland Bay, off 
Plattsburg. 

Both parties now prepared to contend for supremacy on 
Lake Champlain. At the beginning of September, General 
Macomb had gathered a considerable land-force at Plattsburg, 
and worked vigorously in casting up fortifications there. Tlie 
militia were gathering at the call of Genci-al Mooers, and Mac- 
donough was prepared to dispute the passage of British ves- 
sels into the bay at Cumberland Head with carronades and 
heavier guns. 

Sir James Yeo sent Captain Downie to command the Brit- 
ish squadron on Lake Champlain ; and on the morning of the 
11th of September, 1814, the land and naval forces of the en- 
emy moved to make a combined attack npon Plattsburg. The 
army under Sir George Prevost was thirteen or fourteen thou- 
sand strong. The British squadron consisted of one frigate, 
one brig, two sloops, and ten gun-boats. These vessels car- 
ried an agoTCgate of ninety -five guns, and were manned by a 
little mure than one thousand men. The American squad- 
ron consisted of one ship, one brig, one schooner, one sloop, 
and ten gun-boats, carrying an aggregate of eighty-six guns, 
and eight hundred and eighty-two men. Macdonough's flag- 
ship was the Saratoga, 26 guns; Downie's, the Confance, 38 
guns. 

Downie's squadron rounded Cumberland Head at eight 
o'clock in the morning. Macdonough's lay about two miles 



NAVAL BATTLE AT PLATTSBUKG. 217 

off, skilfully arrayed in battle orclcr.^ When the Saratoga was 
cleared for action, Macdonough knelt upon her deck near one 
of her heaviest guns, and, with his officers around him, im- 
plored the Almighty for aid, and committed the issue to His 
care. He arose with assured courage, and as the enemy bore 
down upon him, he coolly sighted one of his guns — a 24- 
pounder — and discharged it. The ball entered the hawse- 
hole of the Confiance, and crashed through every obstacle the 
whole length of her deck, killing several men in its passage, 
and demolishing the wheel. 

The Eagle (American) had fired the first shot; and as the 
Linnet (British) passed the Saratoga to attack the Eagle, she 
gave Macdonough's flag-ship a broadside, but without serious 
effect. One of her balls demolished a hen-coop on the Sara- 
toga, in which was a young game-cock which the sailors had 
brought on board. The released fowl, startled by the noise of 
cannons, flew upon a gun-slide, and, clapping his wings, crow- 
ed lustily and defiantly. The sailors cheered. It was a good 
omen that strengthened the courage of all. In an ''^Epistle of 
Brother Jonathan to Johnny Bull,'''' written soon afterward, this 
event was alluded to as follows : 

" Oh, Johnny Bull, my jo, John, 

Behold, on Lake Champlain, 
With more than equal force, John, 

You tried your fist again ; 
But the eoclv saw how 'twas going, 

And cried ' cock-a-doodle-doo,' 
And Macdonough was victorious, 

Oh, Johnny Bull, my jo !" 

1 The view on page 218 is from the light-house on Cumberland Head, 
and includes the whole of the waters wherein the naval battle of Platts- 
burg was fought. The island seen nearer the left of the picture is Valcour 
Island, near which Benedict Arnold's naval battle was fought in 1776 (see 
page 24). The hills in the distance are the lofty Adirondack Mountains. 

10* 



211 



STORY OF THE UNITE© STATES NAYY. 



The Confiance did not reply to the savage shot of the Sara- 
toga until she obtained a desired position, when she opened her 




entire larboard broadside — sixteen 24-ponnders, double-shotted 
— at one time. The Saratoga shivered as if with an ag-iie, and 



isiacdonough's victory. 219 

forty of her people were disabled. A moment after this stun- 
ning blow the Saratoga opened a steady and destructive fire 
upon her antagonist. One of her balls struck the muzzle of a 
24-pounder of the Confiance^ dismounted it, and sent it bodily 
inboard against Commodore Downie, killing him instantly with- 
out breaking his skin. 

The battle had now become general and terrible, and the 
British gun-boats entered vigorously into the action. For a 
time the fortunes of the day were like a pendulum, vibrating 
first to one side and then to the other. Very soon both flag- 
ships became disabled. The Saratoga was silent, having not a 
single starboard gun left. The Conjiance was not much better 
off. Now Macdonough displayed his consummate seamanship. 
By means of a stream-anchor and hawsers he moved his ship 
so that he brought the guns of his port broadside to bear 
upon his antagonist with such destructive enei'gy that the Con- 
fiance soon surrendered. The Saratoga then directed her fire 
to the next most formidable ship, the Linnet, and compelled 
her to strike her colors. The smaller vessels followed the ex- 
ample. The American vessels were too much crippled to pur- 
sue the flying smaller ones of the British, and they escaped 
capture. 

For two hours and twenty minutes this severe battle had 
raged, while the thunder of cannons, the scream of bomb-shells, 
and the rattle of musketry were heard on the shore, where an 
equally fierce battle had been going on at the same time. It 
was a sublime sight, and was seen by hundreds of spectators 
on the Vermont headlands, who greeted the victory with loud 
shouts. A swift courier carried the news to the struggling 
army, when a shout rung along their lines that so alarmed the 
British that they fell back hastily. In the evening Prevost 
began such a precipitate flight for Canada, that he left his sick 
and wounded and a vast amount of munitions of war behind. 

Macdonough wrote to the Secretary of the Navy : " Sir, — The 



220 



STORY OF THE UNITED^ STATES NAVY. 



Abnighty has been pleased to grant ns a signal victory on Lake 
Cham plain, in the capture of one frigate, one brig, and two 




MACDO>iOUGU S MEDAL. 



sloops-of-war of the enemy." He stated that the Saratoga 
received fifty round shots in her hull, and the Confiance one 



HONORS TO MACDOXOUGH AND MACOMB. 221 

hundred and five. Twice the Saratoga was set on fire by hot 
shots. Few oflScers or men on either vessel were left uninjured ; 
and the same might be said of those on the other larger vessels. 
It was a battle not surpassed in vigor and destructiveness by 
any in the war. 

The events on land and water at Plattsburg produced a 
thrill of intense joy throughout the country. Spontaneous 
honors and praises were given to Macdonough and Macomb. 
Bonfires and illuminations were seen in almost every city and 
large village in the land. For a moment the recent burning 
of Washington City by the British was almost forgotten. The 
freedom of the city of New York was given to Macomb. The 
State of New York gave Macdonough two thousand acres of 
wild land, and Vermont gave him two hundred acres on Cum- 
berland Head, in sight of his field of victory. The cities of 
New York and Albany gave him valuable lots of land. Con- 
gress gave both heroes the thanks of the nation, and a gold 
medal to each. " Thus," said Macdonough to a friend, his 
eyes suffused with tears, " in one month from a poor lieuten- 
ant I became a rich man." 

In the mean time. Commodore Chauncey, while waiting for 
the fitting out of the Superior, had been carrying on some 
minor operations. Pie sent Lieutenant (late Rear-admiral) 
Gregory, with two sailing-masters in three gigs, and a few men, 
to attempt the capture of British boats that were taking sup- 
plies up the St. Lawrence to Kingston. Gregory and his men 
lay in ambush among the Thousand Islands below Alexandria 
Bay at the middle of June, and on the 19th they captured a 
British gun-boat, armed with an 18-pound carronade. For this 
exploit, Congress, thirty years afterward, gave Gregory and liis 
two fellow-ofiicers three thousand dollars. Ten days after this 
capture, Gregory and his companions burnt a schooner on the 
stocks in a Canada port. She was pierced for 14 guns, and was 
nearly ready to be launched; also a building filled with stores. 



222 



STORY OF THE UNITED •STATES NAVY. 



On the last day of July, 1814, Chauncey's squadron sailed 
out of Sackett's Harbor. He was just recovering from severe 
illness. His vessels were the flag-ship Superior, 62 guns ; Pike, 
28, Captain Crane (the second in command); Mohaiok, 42; 
Madison, 2^', Jefferson, 2^ \ Jones, 22; Sylph,!^; Oneida, 16; 
and the lookout boat Ladi/ of the Lake. They appeared off 




'•FULT0>' TllK ilKST."' 



the Niagara River (then again in possession of the British) on 
the 5th of August. Leaving three vessels there to blockade 
some British craft on the river, Chauncey crossed the lake with 
the remainder of his squadron, and proceeded to Kingston, 
blockaded the squadron of Sir James Yeo there for six weeks, 
and tried, in vain, to induce him to come out and fight. 




223 

In the early part of 1814 the construction of a steamship, 
under the direction of Robert Fulton, and intended for harbor 
defence, was begun. It was built at Noah Brown's ship-yard, 
New York, and was launched on the morning of October 29th, 
1814, in the presence of a vast multitude of 
people. The hull consisted of two boats 
separated by a channel fifty feet wide, one 
boat containing the copper boiler for gener- 
ating steam ; the other was occupied by the 
machinery. The propelling wheel revolved 
in the space between them, and they were 
connected by a deck extending over the "--" 

whole. The vessel was 145 feet long and sectiox of FrovTiNG 

1 • 1 BATTEEV. 

55 wide. She had two masts rigged with 
sails, and she mounted thirty 32-pound carronades, and two 
columbiads of 100 pounds each. She made a trial trip a short 
distance to sea, on the 4th of July, 1815, and was propelled 
by her engines alone at the rate of six miles an hour. She 
was a floating battery, and was named Fulton the Firsts 

At the close of September (1814) Chauncey was informed 
that the St. Laivrence^ a frigate pierced for 112 guns, which 
had been constructed at Kingston, was ready for sea. The 
commodore prudently withdrew to Sackett's Harbor to await 
an attack. The St. Lawrence, bearing Sir James Yeo, and 
more than a thousand men, sailed at the middle of October, 

^ The most extravagant stories were told about this floating batteiy. 
In a treatise on steam-vessels, published in Scotland not long after she 
was built, the author said : " Her length is 300 feet ; breadth 200 feet ; 
thickness of her sides 13 feet, of alternate oak plank and corkwood; car- 
ries 44 guns, four of which are 100-pounders ; can discharge 100 gallons 
of boiUng water in a few minutes, and, by mechanics, brandishes 300 cut- 
lasses with the utmost regularity over her gunwales ; works, also, an equal 
number of pikes of great length, darting them from her sides with prodig- 
ious force, and withdrawing them every quarter of a minute," 



224 



STORY OF THE UNITED STATES NAA^Y. 



accompanied by four ships, two brigs, and a schooner; and 
from that hour the baronet roamed Lake Ontario as sov- 
ereign. Determined to match 
the St. Lawrence before the 
opening of another spring, the 
Americans laid the keels of 
two first-class frigates. The 
JVew Orleans was begun at 
Sackett's Harbor, and the 
Cliippewa a few miles farther 
up the bay. 

The New Orleans, when 
news of peace came, in Feb- 
ruary following, was all plank- 
ed, and nearly ready to be 
huinched. So vigorously had 
Eckford pushed the construc- 
tion of the vessel that, within 
twenty -seven days from the 
time when the timber was 
felled in the forest, she had 
reached the point mentioned. 
She .is now (1880) well pre- 
served, under good shelter, af- 
ter a lapse of sixty-five years. 
Yeo did not attack Chauncey at Sackett's Harbor. The 
military force there was increased to about six thousand men, 
and when the lake was closed by ice the war on that frontier 
ceased, for peace was proclaimed soon afterward.^ 

^ Isaac Chauncey was a native of Fairfield County, Connecticut, aud died 
in Washington, in 1840, at the age of sixty-seven years. He was interred 
in the Congressional burying-ground with appropriate honors, and over his 
remains stands a clouded white marble monument about eighteen feet in 
height. 




ilAUNCEY S ilOJNL'.MENT. 



CHESAPEAKE AND DELAWARE BAYS BLOCKADED. 225 



CHAPTER XVI. 

Vexed, alarraecl, and perplexed, the British Government, at 
the close of the year 1812, resolved, most unwisely, to try the 
effects of harsh measures toward the Americans. They had 
tried that policy for ten years before the old war for indepen- 
dence, and failed to accomplish their purposes. They had tried 
it time after time during that war with the same result. The 
Americans were made more united, stronger, and more deter- 
mined than before. 

Yet the British had not learned wisdom from experience ; 
and at the close of 1812 the British Cabinet issued orders for 
a stringent blockade of portions of the American coast, and 
directed their naval commanders to " chastise the Americans 
into submission '' by ravaging their sea-port towns, and deso- 
lating their possessions everywhere with fire and sword. The 
coasts of Chesapealce and Delaware bays were first declared to 
be blockaded, and a sufficient land and naval force, it was sup- 
posed, was sent to enforce every order of the instructions given 
to the respective commanders. The fieet of Admiral Warren 
in American waters was re -enforced, and Rear-admiral Sir 
George Cockburn was appointed his second in command. 

Blockading vessels first appeared in February, 1813, when 
four 74-gun ships and several smaller armed vessels entered be- 
tween the capes of Virginia, and bore up towai'd Hampton Roads. 
They carried land troops, and were well sup])lied with surf-boats 
for landing. Instead of being a true blockading squadron, it 
was a marauding expedition to ravage the countries along the 
sea-board, and pursue indiscriminate plunder. Their appear- 



226 STORY OF THE UNITED^ STATES NAVY. 

ance alarmed all lower Virginia, and the militia in that re- 
gion was soon in motion. By order of the Secretary of the 
Treasury the beacon-lights on the Chesapeake coasts were ex- 
tinguished. Intimidated by these movements, and the fact that 
the frigate Constellation, 38 guns, was lying at Norfolk, the 
British thought it more prudent to operate on Chesapeake and 
Delaware bays than to enter Hampton Roads at that time. 

Cockburn sent Captain Beresford with the Belvidera, Foic- 
tiers, and some smaller vessels, to teach the inhabitants on the 
shores of Delaware Bay the duty of submission. The vil- 
lages were threatened with destruction if they did not fuinish 
the vessels with supplies. " Do your worst ; we will give you 
none !" was the substance of replies from Philadelphia to the 
sea. The people turned out everywhere to repel the invaders, 
and Beresford, finding he could not obtain supplies on the Del- 
aware, sailed away. 

Meanwhile Admiral Cockburn, taking position in Lynn Ha- 
ven Bay, sent out armed marauding parties to plunder the in- 
habitants on the coasts of Chesapeake Bay. He undertook a 
more honorable exploit early in April. The Baltimore priva- 
teer Dolphin, 10 guns. Captain Spafford, and three armed 
schooners lying in the bay, were about to sail for France. Cock- 
burn sent a flotilla of a dozen armed boats, under a lieutenant 
of the St. Domingo, to capture them, and who, after a fierce 
struggle, succeeded. The Dolphin was boarded by overwhelm- 
ing numbers, and, after a furious combat for fifteen minutes 
on her deck. Captain Spafford surrendered. 

This success excited Cockburn's ambition, and he dreamed 
of attacking Annapolis and Baltimore, and even of penetrating 
the country to the national capital and destroying it. But he 
prudently confined his operations to the plunder of smaller 
places. He ravaged Frenchtown and Havre-de-Grace, making 
the latter place full $60,000 poorer than when he arrived. 
After plundering and destroying other quiet and defenceless 



BRITISH VESSELS IX HAMPTOX ROADS. 



22' 



villages, Cockbiirn and his marauders returned to their ships. 
The Americans had no vessels in the Chesapeake to oppose 
these invaders. 

The blockade having, by proclamation, been extended from 
New York to St. Augustine, Admiral Warren entered the Ches- 
apeake with re-enforcements on the 1st of June, 1813. In the 
Elizabeth River were the Constellation^ 38 guns. Captain Tarbell, 
and a tiotilla of twenty gun-boats for the protection of Nor- 
folk. The British vessels menaced Norfolk, Hampton, Annap- 




CUESAPEAKE BAY. 



olis, and Baltimore. Finally, at the middle of June, three 
British frigates entered Hampton Roads, and smaller vessels 
were sent up the James River to ravage its shores. The 
Americans had cast up fortifications on Craney Island, on the 
Elizabeth River, which commaudcd the channel of that stream ; 
and these, well armed witli land troops and artillery, made that 
post very strong. 



228 



STORY OF THE UNITED STATES NAA^Y. 



Captain Tarbell, of the Constellation, oro-aiiized an expedi- 
tion against the British vessels. Toward midnight of the 19th 
of June, the captain, with fifteen gun - boats, descended the 
EHzabeth, and surprised the Jimo, 38 guns, lying the nearest. 
She was about three miles from the other frigates. The wind 
was too light to fill her sails, and the Americans felt assured 
of victory, when a land-breeze suddenly sprung up from the 
north-east, which enabled the other two frigates to come to the 




EEMAIKS OF FOETIFIGATIONS ON ORANEY ISLAND. 



rescue of the Juno. Their heavy guns compelled the Ameri- 
can gun-boats, managed by sweeps, to haul off. 

This attack brought matters to a crisis. The British land- 
forces were debarked on the main, or were sent in barges to 
capture Craney Island, destroy the American flotilla, seize the 
Constellation, and take the city of Norfolk. They were re- 
pulsed at Craney Island, wdien they attacked and captured 
Hampton, a flourishing village near Old Point Comfort. They 
remained there until the close of June, when the blockading 
fleet went up the Potomac River some distance. It consisted 
of seven ships of the line, seven frigates, and eleven smaller 
vessels. 

A portion of the fleet under Cockburn soon afterward sailed 
down the coasts of the Carolinas, capturing private armed ves- 



RAVAGES ON THE SOUTHERN COASTS. 229 

sels and smaller craft, plundering plantations, and carrying 
away many slaves to whom they promised freedom. But the 
poor creatures, it is said, were sent to the West Indies by 
Cockburn, and sold. Among the estates desolated was Bona- 
venture, a few miles from Savannah, the property of the Tatt- 
nall family. The admiral made his head-quarters for awhile 
at a line country-seat on Cumberland Island, off the coast of 
Georgia, whence he sent out marauders in every direction. 




EMTRANOE TO UONAVENTURIC. 

While these events were occurring on the Southern coasts, 
the blockade was extended from the Delaware eastward to 
Xantucket ; and Sir Thomas M. Hardy was sent to enforce it, 
with a small squadron. 

AVe have seen (page 125) that the United States and her 
prize, the Macedonian., entered New York harbor at the begin- 



230 STORY OF THE UNITED STATES NAVY. 

ning of 1813. Soon afterward the Poictiers^ with a number of 
small vessels, was carefully guarding the entrance to New York 
Bay through the Narrow^s. Decatur, anxious to get to sea, 
found it unsafe to attempt it in the face of this blockading 
squadron ; so, with his two frigates and the sloop Hornet, Cap- 
tain Biddle, he passed up Long Island Sound for the purpose 
of escaping to the ocean in that direction. 

Meanwhile a small blockading squadron had been vigilantly 
watching that region. This squadron Decatur met near the 
mouth of the Thames (June 1st, 1813), and ran into New Lon- 
don harbor for safety, where his vessels were blockaded about 
twenty months. 

At the latter part of June Sir Thomas Hardy assumed the 
command of the squadron off New London, which consisted 
of two V4's and a number of smaller vessels ; and at about that 
time an attempt was made to blow up the flag-ship ^vith a float- 
ing mine (see Chapter XXV.), but failed. This attempt, which 
produced a real disaster, so alarmed the British naval com- 
manders, that they did not venture into x\merican harbors there- 
after. 

In the spring of 1813, a flotilla of American gun-boats, under 
Commodore Lewis, appeared in Long Island Sound for the pro- 
tection of the coast-trade against a British privateer that was 
cruising there under the shadow of the blockading squadron. 
The privateer fled eastward on Lewis's approach, and when he 
arrived at the mouth of the Connecticut River he found more 
than fifty American vessels there, afraid to go out on the 
sound. lie bade them follow him, and they did so. 

During the afternoon (June 25th) Lewis had a sharp en- 
gagement with a British frigate, a sloop and tender, but con- 
voyed his trusting followers safely into the Thames. Then he 
determined to attack the blockading squadron. He hurled hot 
shot which set one of the vessels on fire, and so crippled a frig- 
ate that she was about to surrender, when night — dark night — 



THE BRITISH ON THE COAST OF MAINE. 



233 



enabled her to escape. After this, Bi-itish vessels threatened 
to ravage the whole New England coast. Stonington was bom- 
barded, but the assailants were 

repulsed with a loss of twenty 
lives, and an expenditure of 
$50,000. 

Hardy made an easy conquest 
of Eastport, Maine, in July, 1814, 
and the British determined to 
seize the whole country west- 
ward to the Penobscot River. 
For this purpose a fleet, con- 
sisting of three 74's, two frig- 
ates, two sloops-of-war, a schoon- 
er, and ten transports bearing 
land troops, was sent to the ; 
mouth of the Penobscot in Au- ' 
gust, under command of Rear- ; 
admiral Griffith. The British \ 
had learned that the United 
States sloop-of-war John Ad- 
ams, Captain Charles Morris, had 
gone up that river, and pursued 
her as far as Hampden, when, 
satisfied that she could not es- 
cape capture, Morris, after trans- 
ferring her guns to a battery 
on shore, burnt her. 

In the summer of 1814, sev- 
eral new vessels were added to 
the sea-going navy of the Unit- 
ed States. In June, the Guer- 
riere, 44 guns, the first frigate built by the Government on the 
sea-board since 1804, was launched at Philadelphia in the pres- 

11 




234 



STORY OF THE UNITED STATES NAVY. 



ence of fifty thousand persons, and placed under the command 
of Commodore Rodgers. In July the Independence, '74 guns, 
was launched at Charlestown, Massachusetts, amid the roar of 
cannon and the shouts of a multitude; and on the 1st of August, 
the Java, 44 guns, was launched at Baltimore while twenty thou- 
sand people were looking on. The Independence was a two- 
decker, and was placed under the command of Commodore 
Bainbridge, and the Java under Commodore Perry. During 




V)UAKLi:S MOK1U8. 



that summer several new sloops-of-war were made ready for 
sea; and the Adams, 28 guns, had been cut down to a sloop, 
and lengthened. 

At the middle of January (1814), the John Adams, Captain 
Charles Morris, passed the blockading squadron in Lynn Haven 
Bay, ran north-easterly, made a few prizes, and late in March, 



CRUISE OF THE '' JOIIX ADAMS. 



235 



while taking- possession of a siirrendered vessel, was borne 
down upon by two ships-of-war convoying twenty-five mer- 
chant-vessels. She left her prize, 
fled, and escaped into the harbor 
of Savannah. 

Stretching across the Atlantic, 
the John Adams was off the coast 
of Ireland early in July, where 
she was several times chased by 
British frigates, but always es- 
caped. For nearly two months 
Morris had cruised in cold and fog- 
gy weather, which had sickened 
his crew, and he sailed for the 
New England coast, entering the g 
Penobscot somewhat disabled, on ^ 
the iVth of August. Learning that ^ 
a British squadron was on the ^ 
coast, Morris ran the Adams up | 
to Hampden, where, as we have | 
observed on page 233, she w^as " 
burnt.^ 

On the first of May, 1814, the 
new sloop-of-war Was2), 18 guns. 



' Charles Morris was born in Wood- 
stock, Connecticut. He was an excellent 
officer in whatever station he filled. Mor- 
ris Avas captain of the Braridi/wine, which, 
in 1825, conveyed Lafayette back to 
France after his visit to the United 
►States. He died in January, 1826, at the 
age of seventy-two years, and was buried 

with appropriate honors upon a wooded slope in Oak Hill Cemetery, near 
Georgetown, D. C. Over his grave is a chaste white marble monument. 




236 



STORY OF THE UNITED STATES NAVY. 



Captain Jolniston Blakeley, left Portsmouth harbor, New 
Hampshire, and soon appeared in the chops of the British 
Channel, where she spread terror among the people of the sea- 
port towns. One morning late in June, while some distance 
at sea, she was chased by two vessels, which were joined by a 



<^' . 







-MORlilS S MONUiME: 



third, when the foremost showed British colors. After consid- 
erable manoeuvring, and when within sixty yards of each other, 
the British vessel opened fire on the Wasp. The latter soon 
returned the compliment, and a severe action ensued. Several 
times the men of the stranger attempted to board the Wasp, 
but were repelled. Finally, her own men rushed aboard the 
British vessel, and in less than thirty minutes after the com- 



THK " WASP " AND THE " REINDEER. 



237 



bat began she was a prize to the Wasp. She was the British 
sloop-of-war Relndeei', Captain Manners, and was much inferior 
to the Wasp in the number of men and weight of metal. Put- 
ting some of his wounded prisoners on a neutral ship, Blake- 
ley burnt his shattered prize, and sailed for the French port of 
L'Orient. For his gallant conduct on this occasion, Congress 
voted him thanks and a gold medal. 




JOHNSTON ULAKELEY. 



Blakeley sailed from L'Orient on another cruise in the Wasp 
at near the close of August, and on the evening of September 
1st he discovered four sail ahead. Bearing down upon them, 
he was so near one of them at nine o'clock that he opened fire 
with a carronade. It was promptly returned. The night was 
very dark, the wind was fresh, and the vessels were running at 
the rate of ten knots an hour. A very severe engagement en- 
sued. At length, when the stranger was silent, Blakeley called 



238 



STORY OF THE UNITEIJ STATES NAVY. 



out, " Have you surrendered ?" A few shots gave him answer, 
when he gave the stranger another broadside, and repeated the 




BLAKELEY S MEDAt. 



question. It was answered in the affirmative, when a boat was 
sent to take possession of the prize. 



CRUISE OF THE " WASP " AND THE " PEACOCK." 239 

The approach of three other vessels at this juncture com- 
pelled Bhikeley to abandon his prize, which proved to be the 
British brig Avon, 18 guns, Captain Arbuthnot. The Avon 
was so much injured in the battle that she sunk almost imme- 
diately. The survivors of her people were rescued by the other 
vessels that came to her assistance. 

The Wasp continued her cruise, and on the 21st of Septem- 
ber she captured the Atlanta, near the Azores. She was a very 
valuable prize, and Blakeley sent her home. On the 9th of Oc- 
tober (1814) the Wasp was spoken by the Swedish barque 
Adonis, from which two officers from the Essex, who were pas- 
sengers, went on board Blakeley's vessel. The Wasp and her 
people were never heard of afterward. It was supposed that 
she foundered at sea. 

In March, 1814, Captain AVarrington sailed in the Peacock, 
18 guns, from New York, and cruised southward as far as the 
Florida coast, off which she sought in vain for prizes. Finally, 
on the 29th of April, Warrington encountered an English brig, 
which willingly gave battle. A severe combat ensned, at the 
beginning of which a broadside from her antagonist so injured 
the Peacock that she was compelled to run large. She could 
not manoeuvre much, but succeeded in winning a victory at the 
end of forty minutes. 

The foe of the Peacock was the English brig Epervier (the 
French for Sparrow-hawk^, 18 guns. Captain Wales. She was 
badly injured, and was a valuable prize, there being $118,000 
in specie on board of her ; and the vessel sold for $55,000. 
Warrington put her in charge of Lieutenant Nicholson, and 
with her sailed for Savannah. The next day they encounter- 
ed two British frigates. Warrington directed Nicholson to 
take the Epervier into St. Mary's, and they parted. Each was 
chased by a frigate, and so the victor and the captive were sep- 
arated, the Peacock heading off the coast, while the Epervier 
kept in shoal water near the land. 



240 STOKY OF THE UNITED STATES NAVV. 

The frigate pnrsuing the Epervler sent boats filled with arm- 
ed men after her. She was manned by only the lieutenant and 
sixteen officers and men. They were fast gaining- on the fugi- 
tive, and, when they were within speaking distance, Nicholson 
called through his trumpet, as to a shipful of men, to prepare 




LEWIS VVAKUI^•GTON. 



for a broadside. Hearing this, the men in the boats fled, and 
the Epervier escaped. Had the pursuers known the real state 
of the case, they might have captured the Epervier in five min- 
utes. Both of Warrington's vessels reached Savannah in safe- 
ty, and he received unstinted praise from his countrymen. 
Congress voted him thanks and a gold medal. 

In May (1814) the Peacock went on another cruise. Stretch- 
ing across the Atlantic Ocean, she entered the Bay of Biscay, 
and there, and in the waters on the coast of Portugal, she capt- 
ured fourteen merchantmen. But she did not encounter a 



BAKNEY S EXPLOITS IX MARYLAND WATERS. 



241 



ship-of-war anywliere, and at the end of October she returned 
to New York. 




WARRINGTON 8 MEDAL. 



In the summer of 1814 Commodore Josliua Barney was in 
command of a flotilla in Chesapeake Bay. On the 1st of June 

11* 



242 STORY OF THE UNITED STATES NAVY. 

he sailed out of the Patiixentj in his flag-ship Scorpion, with 
two gun-boats and several large barges, and chased two British 
schooners. Very soon a large ship was seen at the southward. 
It bore down upon the flotilla, which fled back to the Patuxent 
for safety. The large vessel anchored at the mouth of that 
river, where she was joined by two others, and Barney's little 
squadron was effectually blockaded. 

On the 8th of June three ships of the line, a brig, two 
schooners, and fifteen barges, sailed into the Patuxent, when 
Barney fled up that stream with his boats into Leonard's Creek. 
Two miles from its mouth he waited, in battle order, the ap- 
proach of the enemy. The British barges, led by a rocket- 
boat,^ moved up the creek, when Barney, with fifteen barges, 
advanced to meet them. Then they fell back. This move- 
ment was repeated in the afternoon with a similar result. The 
next day twenty barges were sent up by the British, which, after 
suffering much in a sharp skirmish, fled back to the protection 
of the large ship that lay at the mouth of the creek. Tlie at- 
tack was renewed two days afterward by twenty-one barges, 
with two schooners in tow. The British flotilla was more se- 
verely punished than at previous attacks, and fled back with 
considerable loss. 

Barney cast up some earthworks to protect his vessels, which 
were manned by his marines and some neighboring militia ; 
and on the 26th his whole force on land and water attempted 
to end the blockade. The large British ship was attacked, 
and so wounded that she w^as compelled to run on a sand-bank 
to keep from sinking. After a sharp fight for about two hours 



^ A rocket was a very destructive piece of fire-work formerly used in 
war. It was composed of a cylinder with a conical head, as " sky-rockets " 
now are, filled with very inflammable matter. They were used for setting 
vessels or buildings on fire. The most efficient ones were invented by Sir 
William Congreve, and were known as the " Congreve rocket." 



barxey's flotilla threatened and burnt. 243 
tlie blockade was raised, and the assailants went down the 



•iver. 



Barney and his flotilla remained in the Patuxent until the 
middle of August, when a large number of launches and barges, 
with British troops, moved up the river on their way toward 




barney's spring. 



the national capital. This advancing enemy were nearly five 
thousand in number. Barney, at their approach, fled up the 
Patuxent. Perceiving it to be impossible to save his vessels, 



244 



STORY OF THE UNITED 'STATES NAVY, 



he burnt them, and with his men, about five hundred in num- 
ber, he joined the land-forces then gathering, under General 
Winder, for the defence of Washington. With them he man- 
ned a battery, and thus fouglit gallantly in the battle of Bla- 
densburg, where he w^as severely wounded by a bullet that was 
never extracted during his lifetime. It was the cause of his 
death a little more than four years after that battle. Barney 
was wounded near a spring, which has been called by his name 



over since. 




KUINS OF THE OAVITOL AFTEIl THE FIllE. 



The British, victorious at Bladensburg, pushed on to the 
national capital, following their leader. General Ross, who was 
accompanied by Admiral Cockburn. The latter urged Ross 
to lay the city in ashes. The general at first refused compli- 
ance, but, strongly urged by Cockburn, who delighted in such 
scenes, he consented to allow the public buildings to be fired. 
On that warm evening, the 24th of August, 1814, Cockburn 
was literally the torch-bearer of the more civilized Ross, and 
the unfinished Capitol, in which was the Library of Congress, 



^ This spring is about two hundred yards from the mansion that belong- 
<^d to the late John C. Kives, publisher of the Washington Globe. Barney's 
battery was in the road near by. 



DESTRUCTION OF PROPERTY AT WASHINGTON. 245 

also the President's honse, the Treasury building, and every 
public structure but the Patent-office, were set on lire. At the 
same time, by order of the Government, the national shippino-, 
stores, and other property at the navy-yard were burnt. The 
value of property destroyed at the seat of government, at that 
time, by friends and foes, was estimated at full $2,000,000. 




Eiri>;s or tjie riiESiur-NT s uoufeE. 



This cruel disaster depressed the spirits of the Americans ; 
but very soon news of victory came from Lake Champlain. 
The British were defeated near Baltimore at the same time, 
and their troops and ships were driven away. Tidings of tri- 
umphs by American cruisers on the ocean also came ; and in 
the joy that was diffused by these inspiriting events the smoul- 
dering ruins at the capital were almost forgotten. 



246 STORY OF THE UNITED -STATES N.4YY. 



CHAPTER XVII. 

The gallant and " lucky " frigate Constitution^ 44 guns, now 
again appeared on the theatre of strife late in 1813. After 
Bainbridge left her, she was thoroughly repaired. A great por- 
tion of her crew were sent to the lakes. When she was ready 
for sea, she was placed under the command of Captain Charles 
Stewart.' On the 13th of December she sailed on a cruise 
southward, and reached the coast of Surinam, South America, 
at the beginning of February, 1814. 

On February 14th the Constitution captured the British war 
schooner Picton, 16 guns, with a privateer which she was con- 
voying; and on her return homeward through the West In- 
dies she chased the British frigate La Pique, 36 guns. Captain 
Maitland, but lost sight of her in the darkness of night, and 
she escaped. 

Early on Sunday morning, April 3d, the Constitution, when 
off Cape Ann, saw two heavy British frigates bearing down 
upon her with a fair wind. They were the Juvon and La 
Nymphe. Stewart designed to enter Boston harbor, but he 
was compelled to seek safety for the Constitution in the har- 
bor of Marblehead. By great skill in management he took 
her into that harbor with safety, where she was protected by 

^ Charles Stewart was born in Philadelphia, in July, 1*778. His parents 
were natives of Ireland. He began a maritime life at the age of thirteen 
years. He was in the naval service, afloat and ashore, sixty-four years, 
and died at Bordentown, New Jersey, November Vth, 1869, at a little past 
ninety-one years of age. The portrait given on the opposite page is from 
a photograph taken when he was eighty-six years old. 



CRUISE OF THE 



247 



a competent land-force. She finally went to Boston harbor, 
where she remained until near the close of the year. 

Late in December (1814) the Constitution^ still under the 
command of Stewart, put to sea, and went to the Bay of Bis- 
cay by way of the Bermudas and Madeira, and cruised for 
some time off the port of Lisbon and farther southward. 




CHARLES STEWART AT TUE AGE OF EIGIITY-SIX. 



While yet in sight of Lisbon, Stewart saw a large ship seaward 
and gave chase, but, stopping to capture a prize, he lost sight 
of her, and she entered the port of the Portuguese capital. 
She was the Elizabeth^ 74 giifis. Liformcd of the presence of 
the Constitution on the coast, the Elizaheth went out immedi- 
ately to seek her, but failed to find her. 

Sailing toward St. Vincent, on the 20th of February, 1815, 
Stewart discovered a strange sail, and gave chase. Soon after- 



248 STOllY OF THE UNITE^ STATES NAVY. 

ward a second sail appeared. They were evidently in company. 
Toward evening tbey exchanged signals, and drew near to each 
other. Stewart crowded sail, and tried to get the nearest one 
nnder his gnns before nightfall. Slowly gaining on the fugi- 
tives, he cleared his ship for action, and at six o'clock, being 
within range, he threw out his colors, when they displayed 
British ensigns. 

The Constitution, with a fair wind, shot by the two vessels, 
and reached a position where she formed a point of an equilat- 
eral triangle with her antagonists. She was at the windward 
of the latter. In this advantageous position, Stewart began the 
action. For fifteen minutes the three vessels kept up a terrific 
fire, when the cannonading of all three ceased. A heavy cloud 
of smoke hung in the night air like a pall over the scene, 
scarcely admitting the light of the moon which was shining 
brightly. AVhen a light breeze cleared it away, Stewart saw his 
leading antagonist trying to get in a position to rake the Consti- 
tution. He instantly gave her a broadside, and backing swiftly 
astern, he compelled his foe to fill again to avoid being raked. 

For awhile both vessels manoeuvred admirably, pouring 
heavy shot into each other whenever opportunity offered. 
Very soon the English vessel struck her flag and surrendered. 
She was the frigate Cyane, 38 guns, Captain Falcoln. 

The consort of the Cyane was so crippled that she was 
forced out of the combat. Stewart now sought her, and met 
her retiring, quite ignorant of what had happened to her com- 
panion. There was a running fight for awhile, but the Eng- 
lishman, overpowered, fired a gun to leeward, and surrendered. 
She was the Levant, 18 guns. Captain Douglass. The Cyane 
was put in charge of Lieutenant Hoffman, and the Levant of 
Lieutenant Ballard. 

The Constitution at this time was thoroughly equipped. 
She had fifty-two guns, and her complement of men was four 
hundred and seventy. The Cyane carried thirty -four guns. 



EXPLOITS OF ''OLD IRONSIDES " IX 1815. 249 

and one Imndred and eighty-five men. The Levant was a new 
ship, carrying twenty -one guns, and one hundred and thirty 
men. The Constitution was very little injured, and three hours 
after the battle she was again ready for action. She lost fif- 
teen men killed or wounded ; her antagonist lost seventy-five. 
The actual fighting — hard pounding — did not occupy over 
forty-five minutes. 

Stewart sailed, with his prizes, for Porto Pray a, in one of 
the Cape de Verde Islands, arriving on the 10th of March, 
1815. The next day three large British war-vessels were dim- 
ly seen through the fog approaching the harbor. They were 
the Leander, 54 guns. Sir George Collier ; Newcastle, 50, Lord 
George Stuart ; and Acasta, 40, Captain Kerr. Seeing his peril. 
Commodore Stewart cut the cable of the Constitution, and sail- 
ed out of the harbor, followed by his prizes. The British ves- 
sels gave chase, and pressed hard upon the fugitives. The 
Cyajie was nearly caught, when she tacked and escaped under 
cover of the mist, and made her way to New York. 

The ship continued to chase the Constitution, and the New- 
castle fired her chase guns, but without effect. The Levant 
was nearly overtaken, when Stewart signaled to Ballard to 
tack. When the order was obeyed, the pursuers abandoned 
the chase of the Constitution, and pressed the Levant back to 
port, where, in utter disregard of the claims of neutrality (it was 
a Portuguese port) they attacked her, and she was compelled 
to surrender. 

So ended the career of " Old Ironsides " in the war of 
1812-15. Iler last exploits were performed after the procla- 
mation of peace, of which her commander was then ignorant. 
He heard the news at Porto Rico, and immediately returned 
home, bringing with him the first intelligence of his combat 
with the Cyane and Levant. Stewart became the hero of the 
honr. The freedom of the city of New York was given him 
in a gold box ; and to him and. his officers a public dinner was 



250 



STORY OF THE UiNITED, STATES NAVY. 



tendered by the Common Council. The Legislature of Penn- 
sylvania voted him thanks and a gold-hilted sword. Congress 




STEWART S MEDAL. 



voted him and his men the thanks of the nation, and a gold 
medal for the brave and skilful commodore. 



A PLEA FOR THE ''CONSTITUTION. 



251 



The Constitution is yet (1880) in the national service, though 
more than fourscore years of age. Her exploits became the 
theme of oratory and song ; and from that day until this she 
has been held in reverence by the American people. Many 
years ago, when the Navy Department contemplated breaking 




THE "constitution," ISGO. 

her up and selling her timbers, the following patriotic poem, 
written by Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes, had a powerful influ- 
ence upon the public mind, and she was saved : 

" OLD IRONSIDES. 

" Ay, tear her tattered ensign down ! 

Long has it waved on high, 
And many an eye has danced to see 

That banner in the sky. 
Beneath it rung the battle shout, 

And burst the cannon's roar ; 
The meteor of the ocean air 

Shall sweep the clouds no more ! 

" Her deck — once red with heroes' blood, 
Where knelt the vanquished foe, 



252 STORY OF THE UNITED ^STATES XAYY. 

When winds were hurrying o'er the flood, 

And waves were white below — 
No more shall feel the victor's tread, 

Or know the conquered knee ; 
The harpies of the shore shall pluck 

The eagle of the sea ! 

" Oh ! better that her shattered hulk 

Should sink beneath the wave ; 
Her thunders shook the mighty deep, 

And there should be her grave. 
Nail to her mast her holy flag, 

Set every threadbare sail, 
And give her to the god of storms, 

The lightning and the gale." 

In the summer of 1814 Commodore Decatur, who had been 
inactive a long time on account of the blockade of his vessels 
in the Thames above New London (see page 230), was trans- 
ferred to the President, 44 guns, and was finally ordered to go 
on a cruise to the East Indies to spread havoc among the Brit- 
ish shipping in that remote quarter of the globe. He was 
ready at the middle of January, 1815, having under his com- 
mand the President, his flag-ship; Peacock, 18 guns, Captain 
Warrington; ^oni<?^, 18, Captain Biddle; and Tom Bowline, 
a store-ship. 

On the night of January 14th, after a heavy gale which, it 
was supposed, had scattered the blockaders lying off Sandy 
Hook, Decatur ran out of the Narrows, leaving the other ves- 
sels at their anchorage near Staten Island. Keeping close to 
the Long Island shore for about five hours, he pushed boldly 
out to sea, and soon discovered, by the starlight, strange sails 
ahead. At dawn the President was chased by four ships-of- 
war, two on her quarters, and two astern. These were the En- 
dyrnion, 40 gnus; Pomone, 38; Tenedos, 38; and Majestic, ra- 
zee, of the blockading squadron which had been blown off the 
coast. 



THE " PRESIDENT " AND '' ENDYMION. 



253 



The President was deeply laden with stores for a long cruise, 
and the Endymion rapidly gained on her. The President was 
lightened to increase her speed, but it was of little avail. On 
came the Endymion with a fresh breeze which the President 
did not feel, and very soon a sharp action began. Decatur 
tried to lay his vessel by the side of his antagonist for a hand- 
to-hand fight, but the wary commander of the Endymion kept 
his ship a quarter of a mile from the President. 




STEl'llEN DKOATUE. 



Decatur now determined to dismantle the Endymion. The 
two frigates ran head-and-head dead before the wind, each dis- 
charging heavy broadsides at the other for two hours and a 
half, when the Endymion, having most of her sails cut from 
her yards, fell astern. She was ready to strike her colors when 
the other vessels were seen in the dim starlight to be near. 
The President ran on, hoping to escape, but could not. Her 



254 STORY OF THE UNITED STATES NAVY. 

pursuers closed around her, and all fell upon her with energy. 
At about midnight she was compelled to surrender. Decatur 
gave her to Captain Hayes, of the Majestic, the first vessel that 
came along-side the vanquished frigate. For his gallant con- 
duct in this affair Decatur vv^as honored and praised every- 
where. It was admitted by the English that the President 
was captured by a squadron, and not by a single ship. 

The remainder of Decatur's fleet followed the President to 
sea, but were ignorant of her fate. He had designated Tristan 
d'Acunha, the principal in a group of islands in the South At- 
lantic Ocean, as a place of rendezv^ous, 37° south and 12° west 
from Greenwich. The vessels were there on the 23d of 
March. Captain Biddle, of the Hornet, discovering a strange 
sail, went seaward to reconnoitre. The stranger bore down 
upon her, displayed English colors, and fired a gun. A sharp 
fight for about fifteen minutes followed. So hot was the can- 
nonade of the Hornet, that her antagonist ran down to board 
her. The vessels became entangled, and the first lieutenant of 
the stranger ordered his men to board. They would not fol- 
low him, and Biddle's advantage being in his guns, he would 
not let his men, eager to have a hand-to-hand fight, go aboard 
of his antagonist. His broadsides raked the stranger, and she 
soon surrendered. She w^as the Penguin, 18 guns. Captain. 
Dickenson. The combat had lasted only twenty minutes. The 
Penguin was much shattered; and Captain Biddle, after taking 
from her all that was valuable, scuttled her on the morning of 
the 25th. 

This conflict was considered by naval officers one of the 
most creditable actions of the war, and special honors were be- 
stowed upon Captain Biddle on his return. The corporation 
of New York gave him a public dinner; citizens of Philadel- 
phia, his native town, presented to him a beautiful service of 
silver plate ; and Congress voted him the thanks of the repub- 
lic and a. 2;old medal. 



CKUISE OF THE "HORJSET" AND "PEACOCK. 



255 



AVhile the Hornet and Peacock were afterward sailing in 
company toward the Indian seas, they were chased by the 
Cornwallis^ a British '74-gun ship. The two American vessels 
spread every sail for flight. The Peacock soon got out of 
danger, but the Hornet, being a slower sailer, was soon so near- 
ly overtaken by her huge pursuer, that the Cornwallis began 
to fire chase -guns. On sped the Hornet, struck occasionally 




JAMKS 1U1)1)J,K 



by a ball. She cast overboard everything that might impede 
her progress. By consummate seamanship Biddle saved his 
vessel. It outstripped the pursuer, and early in June entered 
the port of New York with a single gun, and without a boat or 
an anchor. 

The Peacock continued on her cruise, and on the 30th of 
June fell in with the East India Company's cruiser Nautilus^ 



156 



STOEY OF THE UNITED STATES NAVY. 



14 guns, in the Straits of Sunda. She was commanded by 
Lieutenant Charles Boyce. They were off Anjer when War- 




BIDDLE S MEDAL. 



rington opened a broadside upon the Nautilus. After an ex- 
change of a few broadsides, the British vessel struck her colors. 



CIJAKACTEE OF THE AMERICAN NAVY. 257 

This occurred a few days after the time set by the treaty of 
peace for the cessation of hostilities. Warrington was then 
ignorant of any such treaty, but, being informed the next day 
of its ratification, he gave up the Nautilus, and did everything 
in his power to alleviate the sufferings of her injured people. 
He had fired the last shot on the ocean in the Second War 
for Independence. The Nautilus had the distinction of being 
the first and last cruiser taken during the war (see page 102). 
The fight between the Hornet and Penguin was the last regu- 
lar naval battle in that war; the affair of the Peacock and Nau- 
tilus being only an encounter. 

When the Peacock reached America, every cruiser, public 
and private, that had been out against the British had returned 
to port, and the war was over. " The navy," wrote Cooper, 
" came out of this struggle with a vast increase of reputation. 
The brilliant style in which the ships had been carried into 
action, the steadiness and rapidity with which they had been 
handled, and the fatal accuracy of their fire on nearly every 
occasion, produced a new era in naval warfare." 

Nearly every conflict was short. Most of the frigate actions 
were soon decided ; and in no instance was it found necessary 
to keep up the fire of a sloop-of-war an hour, when singly en- 
gaged. Most of these combats had been decided within thirty 
minutes, and the execution done by smaller ships was equal, in 
most instances, to that made by the lai'gest vessels of Europe 
in general actions. The result surprised both nations. British 
public writers, and the best and bravest of the commanders in 
the Royal Navy, were ready to admit that a new power was 
about to appear on the ocean, and that probably the battle 
for the mastery of the seas would have to be fought over 
again. 

The British people were painfully impressed with the feeling 
that some of their boastful naval songs would soon become ob- 
solete. Their common-sense suggested that it might be pru- 

12 



258 STORY OF THE UNITED STATES NAVY. 

dent not to sing too loudly the favorite one which they had 
for scores of years been chanting in the ears of the nations : 

"When Britain first at Heaven's command 
Arose from out the azure main, 
This was the charter of the land, 

And guardian angels sung the strain — 
' Rule Britannia ! Britannia, rule the waves, 
For Britons never shall be slaves !' " 

The Americans responded in the spirit of a song written by 
Chancellor Kilty, of Maryland, twenty years before the war of 
1812-'15: 

" But wherefore Britons rule the Avaves ? 
Why grasp the wide-extended sea ? 
Must all the world besides be slaves, 
That only Britons may be free ? 
Hence, then, Britannia no more shall rule the waves, 
Nor see the nations 'round her slaves. 

"For see! Columbia's sons arise. 

Firm, independent, bold, and free ; 

They, too, shall seize the glorious prize, 

And share the empire of the sea. 

Hence, then, let freemen, let freemen rule the waves, 

And those who yield them still be slaves !" 

Here ends our story of the doings of the regular war navy 
of the United States during their second and successful strug- 
gle for independence. I will now tell you something of the 
irregular navy — the privateers — that helped the regulars from 
beo-innino- to end. Their exploits should alvvavs be reckoned 
with the achievements of the navy of the United States in es- 
tiraatino' the value of its services. 



JEFFERSOiS S DEFENCE OF PKIVATEEUIJSG. 259 



CHAPTER XVIII. 

A PRIVATEER is Hot a member of a national navy, but may 
often be a powerful auxiliary or help to a navy in time of war. 
The laws of nations assign to the privateer an honorable place 
in marine warfare. In 1812, Thomas Jefferson asked, " What 
is war?" and answered himself, " It is simply a contest between 
nations of trying- which can do the other the most harm." 

Again he asked, and answered as follows : 

"Who carries on the war? Armies are formed and navies 
manned by individuals. What produces peace? The distress 
of individuals. What difference to the sufferer is it that his 
property is taken by a national or a private armed vessel ?" 

From these premises Jefferson argued that privateering was 
as just and honorable as any other marine warfare. Neverthe- 
less, rigid morality holds the privateer to be a legalized pirate. 

During the Second War for Independence (1812-15) Amer- 
ican privateers performed eminent services for the nation in 
assisting the government vessels in distressing the enemies of 
the republic. So they have done in every war on the ocean 
in which the United States have been engaged from the foun- 
dation of the republic. A brief account of the exploits of 
the most famous of the American privateers during the war of 
1812-15 may, therefore, be approjjriately given here. 

In their act declaring war against England, in 1812, Con- 
gress authorized the President to "issue to private armed ves- 
sels of the United States commissions, or letters of marque or 
reprisal," as they were called. Under a specific act, passed 
June 26th, the President issued such commissions freely. Very 



260 



STORY OF THE UNITED STATES XAVY. 



soon swift- winged brigs, and schooners, and pilot -boats, all 
armed, were out upon the bigb seas in search of conquest and 
plunder from the common enemy. 

Of these vessels the most renowned for capacity in pursuit 
or flight were "Baltimore clippers" — small "clipper-built" ves- 
sels, with raking masts, carrying six to ten guns, with a single 
long 9-pounder mounted on a swivel in the centre. These were 
usually manned by fifty persons, besides officers, all armed with 
muskets, cutlasses, and boarding -pikes, and commanded to 
" burn, sink, and destroy " the property of an enemy wherever 
it might be found, either on the sea or in British ports. 




.ll'l'Kii-liUlLT I'ltlVATKEU. 



The port of Salem, Massachusetts, became famous as the 
home of privateers throughout the w^ar. Into that port the 
first prizes captured on the ocean, during the war of 1812-15, 
were taken. On the 10th of July the privateer schooner Fame, 
Captain Webb, took into Salem harbor two captured British 
ships, one laden with timber, the other with tar. On the same 
day the privateer Dash, Captain Carroway, of Baltimore, en- 



A SQUADRON OF PKIVATEEKS. 201 

tered Hampton Roads, and captured the British government 
schooner Wliititig, bearing- despatches from London to Wash- 
ington. 

Four days afterward tlie stauncli privateer Madison^ of 
Gloucester, Massachusetts, pounced upon and captured a Brit- 
ish transport sliip, bound for St. John. The prize was valued 
at $50,000, and was sent into Gloucester. The Madison soon 
afterward captured a British ship of twelve guns, and a brig 
of six guns. 

On the ] 8th of July the schooner Falcon, of Baltimore, 
bearing six guns and sixteen men, fought the British cutter 
Hero, with five guns and fifty men, off the coast of France, for 
two hours and a half, and drove her away. The Falcon was 
captured the next day by a British privateer, with six guns, af- 
ter a desperate fight for an hour and a half, in which her cap- 
tain was killed. The harvest for American privateers in July, 
1812 — the first month of the war — consisted of more than fif- 
ty British vessels captured, and taken into the harbors of the 
United States. 

A notable squadron of privateers went out from Baltimore 
at near the middle of July. There were seven of them, led by 
the swift clipper-built schooner Rossie, 14 guns, and one hun- 
dred and twenty men, commanded by the veteran Joshua Bar- 
ney. The Rossie was chased by British frigates, but her fast- 
sailiug qualities always allowed her to escape. She captured 
and burnt British vessels in July and August. On the 2d of 
August she captured a British brig, put on board of her sixty 
of his prisoners, and ordered her as a cartel to St. John, New 
Brunswick, to effect an exchange for as many American pris- 
oners. 

Barney sent his compliments to Admiral Sawyer, the Brit- 
ish comuiander on the Halifax Station, desired him to treat 
the prisoners well, and coolly assured him that he should soon 
send him another ship-load of captives for exchange. Between 



262 STORY OF THE UNITED STATES NAVY. 

that time and the close of the month, when the Rossie ran into 
Narraganset Bay, Barney captured and destroyed several other 
British vessels. During his cruise of forty-five days he had 
captured fourteen vessels, nine of which he burnt. Their ag- 
gregate value was estimated at $1,289,000. The number of 
his prisoners was one hundred- and sixty-six. 

Barney started on a second cruise with the Rossie on the 
Yth of September. Again she was chased by British frigates 
and ships-of-war, but always eluded them. On September 16th 
she captured the British armed packet-ship Princess Amelia^ 
after a sharp fight for almost an hour. The sails and rigging 
of the Rossie were much injured, but her hull was unhurt. 
The Princess Amelia was badly cut up in hull and spars, and 
lost her captain and sailing-master, who were killed. Barney 
captured prizes here and there, and on the 10th of November 
returned to Baltimore. The result of his two cruises on the 
Rossie was the capture of 3698 tons of shipping, valued at 
$1,500,000, and two hundred and seventeen prisoners. 

The brig Dolphin, of Baltimore, Captain Stafford, was a suc- 
cessful privateer. She had twelve guns and one hundred men. 
She sent in the first prize that entered the harbor of Baltimore 
after the declaration of war. After a cruise of twenty days, 
during which time she had captured six vessels without receiv- 
ing any injury, she entered the port of Salem. She was fre- 
quently chased by British cruisers more powerful than herself, 
but always outstripped them in speed. 

The schooner Globe, of Baltimore, Captain Murphy, was an- 
other famous privateer. She went to sea on July 24th, 1812, 
in company with the privateer Cora, and on the 31st chased a 
vessel about three hours, and when she was within gun-shot 
distance, began firing. The Globe carried eight guns and eigh- 
ty men. The vessel she had chased now raised British col- 
ors. The wind was blowing very fresh, and, after a sharp en- 
gagement for an hour and a half, a part of the time within 



CRUISE OF BALTIMORE TRIV ATEERS. 263 

musket-sliot distance of each other, the British vessel struck 
her colors. She was the EngUsh privateer Boyd^ mounting ten 
guns. No person was injured on either ship. 

On the 14th of August the Globe captured a British schooner 
of four guns, laden with mahogany, and a few days later she 
made a prize of a large British vessel of twenty -two guns, 
richly laden, bound for Glasgow. She was captured near the 
Bermudas. 

The Highflyer^ Captain Gavit, of Baltimore, was also a suc- 
cessful cruiser under a privateer commission. She was armed 
with eight guns, and manned by one hundred men. She left 
Baltimore early in July. Late in August she gave chase to the 
Jamaica fleet of merchantmen, but, finding them convoyed by a 
British frigate, withdrew. The frigate gave chase, but the High- 
fiyer outsailed her, and two days afterward (August 21st, 1812) 
she pounced upon and captured one of the merchant-vessels of 
the convoy. She was a valuable prize. 

The next day the Highflyer fell in with and fought two 
armed British vessels, but the wind was too strong to allow 
Gavit to board them with safety, so he hauled off. On the 
following day the Highflyer fell upon them again, and boarded 
and captured one of them, when the other struck her colors. 
They were the Jamaica, 1 guns, and twenty -one men; and 
Mary Ann, 12 guns, and eighteen men. Both ships were 
richly laden with the products of the West India Islands. 

The Yankee, 10 guns, while off the coast of Nova Scotia, on 
the 1st of August, 1812, encountered the British privateer Boy- 
al Bounty, of the same weight in metal. The marines of the 
Yankee were mostly sharp-shooters, and in the combat the 
muskets and great guns of the American vessel made havoc 
with the hull and rigging of her antagonist. She became un- 
manageable, and surrendered. 

Early in August the Shadow, Captain Taylor, of Philadel- 
phia, had a severe combat with the British privateer May, from 



264 STORY OF THE UNITED STATES XAVY. 

Liverpool. The battle began on the evening of August 4th. 
The night was dark and squall}^ The vessels kept near each 
other, occasionally exchanging shots, and early in the morning 
they began a severe contest. Taylor was instantly killed. The 
Shadow, much injured, withdrew, and by superior sailing she 
escaped and returned to Philadelphia. 

The Atlas, Captain David MafRtt, captured two British armed 
ships, one carrying sixteen guns, and the other twelve. They 
were laden with valuable cargoes from Surinam, and were 
bound for London. At about the same time the privateer 
John, of Salem, Captain Crowninshield, returned to that port 
after a cruise of three weeks, during which time she had made 
eleven captures. 

Before the close of the summer of 1812 American privateers 
were active all along the coast, and as far as the West Indies. 
The schooner Pa^d Jones, of New York, Captain Hazard, was 
particularly successful. Within a very short period she had 
captured fourteen vessels near the island of Porto Rico, some 
of them of considerable value. Early in August she captured 
the British ship Hassan, 14 guns, on her way from Gibraltar 
for Havana, with a cargo valued at $200,000. She surrendered 
after a combat of only half an hour. 

A most daring act, pronounced by the American journals as 
" gallant, but unprofitable conduct," and by the British " ex- 
ceedingly brave," was performed by Captain Leveley, with the 
privateer Nonsuch, carrying twelve guns and about one hun- 
dred men. She was one of the famous Baltimore clippers. 
While cruising near the island of Martinique (September 27th, 
1812), she fell in with a British ship of sixteen guns, and a 
schooner with six 4-pounders. The Nonsuch ran in between 
the two vessels at half pistol-shot distance from each, and be- 
gan a furious contest, which lasted more than three hours. Her 
carronadcs became very hot with incessant firing, and were 
finally all dismounted. Leveley tried to bring the Nonsuch 



THE OCEAN SWARMIXG WITH PRIVATEERS. 265 

along-side liis antagonists that lie might board them, but her 
spars and rigging were so much damaged that she was unman- 
ageable. The two vessels escaped — the larger ship much dam- 
aged, and with a loss of twenty men, it was afterward ascertained. 

The Saratoga, Captain Riker, of New York, was a successful 
privateer. She was armed with eighteen guns, and manned by 
one hundred and forty men. In the autumn of 1812 she capt- 
ured the Quebec, 16 guns, from Jamaica, with a cargo valued 
at $300,000. A little later (December 11th), while nnder the 
command of Captain C. W. Wooster, she had a battle with the 
brig Rachel, 12 guns, from Scotland. The combat was a furi- 
ous one, and was carried on in the presence of the inhabitants 
of La Guayra as spectators. The Rachel suffered much, and 
.was surrendered. As the Saratoga was sailing out of the har- 
bor she had captured a vessel with goods valued at $20,000, 
and had encountered the Rachel in a fog. 

When the year 1813 dawned the ocean was swarming with 
American privateers. One of the most active of them was the 
schooner Governor Tompkins, Captain Shaler, of New York, 
who, on Christmas-day, 1812, chased three British vessels, ap- 
parently two ships and a brig. He had fourteen carronades 
and one " Long Tom " — a long. 9-pounder — and one hundred 
and forty men. Shaler ran to attack the larger vessel, and 
when very near he discovered her to be a British frigate in the 
disguise of a merchantman. He boldly opened fire upon her, 
but the response was terrible. Shaler spread his sails for 
flight, and escaped. " Thanks to her heels," he said, " and the 
exertions of my brave officers and crew [with sweeps], I still 
have command of her." 

One of the boldest of the privateersmen was Captain Thom- 
as Boyle, of Baltimore, who sailed in the Comet, of 14 guns, 
with one hundred and twenty men. So early as August, 1812, 
the Comet captured a British ship, after an obstinate contest, 
whose cargo was valued at $150,000. In December following, 

12* 



266 STORY OF THE UNITED STATES NAVY. 

she sailed from Baltimore, passed through the British blockad- 
ing squadron on a dark night, and went on a cruise toward 
the coast of Brazil. Early in January (1813), the Comet was 
watching oif the port of Pernambuco for some British vessels 
which Boyle had been told were about to leave that harbor. 

On January 14th, three British merchant -vessels sailed out 
of the port under convoy of a Portuguese brig mounting 22 
heavy guns and manned by one hundred and sixty-five men. 
The captain of the brig warned Boyle not to molest the mer- 
chantmen, when the captain of the Comet told hitn that he, 
a neutral, had no right to interfere. The merchantmen crowd- 
ed sail; the Comet swiftly pursued, and summoned the Eng- 
lishmen to heave to. The Portuguese brig gave chase to the 
Comet. The latter tacked, came along-side the merchantmen, 
and so distributed her fire that all three were wounded. 

A sharp contest with the Portuguese brig followed, in which 
the interferer suffered severely, for the quick movements of the 
clipper gave a great advantage of position continually. The 
moon went down, the night became dark and squally, the mer- 
chantmen surrendered, and Boyle took possession of one of 
them. The brig and the other two escaped to Pernambuco. 
Boyle soon afterward captured another vessel, and successfully 
fled before the British frigate Siirj^rise, that chased the Comet 
a long distance. 

Early in February, after the Comet had captured two armed 
brigs, the British man-of-war Swaggerer appeared. Boyle suc- 
ceeded in getting his prizes off while pretending to be willing 
to fight the Swaggerer. This accomplished, he spread his sails, 
and was soon, by quick sailing, beyond the reach of the heavy 
vessel. In his flight he captured the schooner Java. On his 
way home Boyle met the British ship Hihernki., of 22 guns, 
and a full complement of men. A terrible battle ensued. The 
Cornet^ badly injured, put into Porto Rico for. repairs. She 
arrived at Baltimore on the 17th of March. 



BOYLE, THE BRAVE PRIVATEERSMAN. 267 

Boyle was soon out on the ocean again, in the beautiful clip- 
per Chasseur, elegant in model, heavily armed and manned, and 
the fleetest of all vessels afloat. The story of her cruise is full 
of romantic adventure. She was here, there, and everywhere ; 
sometimes in the West Indies ; then on the coasts of Spain, 
Portugal, and France ; and then in the British and Irish Chan- 
nels, spreading the wildest alarm among England's commercial 
marine. Equal alarm was felt by the English merchants in the 
West Indies, and among the islands of the Caribbean Sea ; and 
the frigate Barrosa was sent there to protect their property. 
This frigate the fleet Chasseur delighted to tease. 

The Chasseur seemed to sweep over the seas like a phantom 
ship, and Boyle was as impudent as he was bold. W^hile in 
the British Channel, he issued a proclamation as a burlesque 
of those of British admirals on the American coast, in which he 
declared " all the ports, harbors, bays, creeks, rivers, inlets, out- 
lets, islands, and sea-coasts of the United Kingdom of Great 
Britain and Ireland in a state of rigorous blockade." He as- 
sured the world that he had a suflScient force in the Chasseur 
to compel obedience. He sent the proclamation to London, 
with a request to have it posted at Lloyd's Coffee-house! 
Boyle, with the Chasseur, captured eighty vessels, of which 
thirty-two were of equal force with his vessel, and eighteen her 
superiors. Many of the prizes were of great value. Three of 
them alone were valued at $400,000. 

The Dolphin, Saratoga, and Yankee appeared conspicuous 
on the ocean in 1813. Late in January, the Dolphin, Captain 
Stafford, fell in with a British ship and brig off Cape St. Vin- 
cent, fought them both, and captured them after a severe com- 
bat. These were valuable prizes. The captain of the ship 
(the Hehe) was astonished to find a " Yankee privateer in that 
part of the world;" and when the good-natured Stafford as- 
sured him that they would soon be found in the Thames, he 
simply replied, " Extronary !" 



268 STORY OF THE UNITED STATES NAVY. 

The Saratoga was now under the command of Captain 
Woolsey, and on the 9th of Febriiary she captured the Lord 
Nelson, one of the finest ships in tlie British merchant-service. 
She was sent into New Orleans. Chased by a British frigate 
at about that time, the Saratoga, to lighten her and increase 
her speed, threw overboard all her guns but four. In this 
weakened state she fought and captured the privateer Mor- 
giana, of 18 guns, and from this prize, which was sent into 
Newport, her armament was replenished with five brass pieces. 

At about this time the Yankee entered Newport harbor, after 
a cruise of one hundred and fifty days, during which time she 
had roamed along the whole western coast of Africa, taken 
eight prizes, made one hundred and ninety-six prisoners, and 
secured, as trophies, sixty-two cannons, five hundred muskets, 
and other property worth nearly $300,000. The Yankee left 
Newport on another cruise' late in May, and in June, while off 
the coast of Ireland, captured four British vessels, with an aggre- 
gate value of about $200,000. These were sent as prizes into 
French ports for adjudication and sale. The Yankee did this 
w^ork in about six weeks, and returned to Providence, Rhode 
Island, without losing a man during the cruise. 

The privateer schooner Lottery, of Baltimore, with six guns 
and thirty-five men, fought a desperate battle in Chesapeake 
Bay, on the loth of February, with nine British barges manned 
witli two hundred and forty armed men. The contest lasted 
an hour and a half, and many of the English were slain. At 
length her commander (Captain Southcote) was severely wound- 
ed. The men from the barges, in overwhelming numbers, board- 
ed her, and finally made her a prize. 



NEW YORK MERCHANTS AND PRIVATEERS. 269 



CHAPTER XIX. 

The merchants of New York, who had large interests at 
stake on the ocean, fitted out twenty-six fast-sailing privateers 
within fonr months after war was declared. These vessels car- 
ried, in the aggregate, about two hundred pieces of artillery, 
and were manned by over tw^o thousand seamen. Many of 
these vessels continued in active service during a greater por- 
tion of the period of the war. 

Among the private armed vessels fitted out at New York 
one of the most famous was the General Armstrong, the first 
commander of which was Captain Barnard. Early in March, 
1813, while under the command of Captain Guy R. Champlin, 
she was cruising off the month of the Surinam River, South 
America, when, on the morning of the 11th, she gave chase 
to the British sloop-of-war Coquette, which mounted twenty- 
seven guns, and was manned by one hundred and twenty-one 
men and boys. The Armstrong mounted eighteen carronades 
and one long 42-pounder, and bore one hundred and forty men. 

Champlin ran the Armstrong down upon the Coquette in 
order to board her, when, too late to retreat, he discovered that 
she was a much heavier vessel than he imagined. They pour- 
ed heavy broadsides into each other within pistol shot, and the 
combat was fierce and obstinate for almost an hour. The Arm- 
strong was seriously injured, but she escaped by a vigorous use 
of sweeps. The stockholders in New York presented Captain 
Champlin with a sword for his skill and bravery in saving his 
vessel. We shall meet the Armstrong again presently. 

A few days after the sword w'as presented to Captain Cham- 



270 STORY OF THE UNITED STATES NAVY. 

plin, the Ned, a New York privateer, brought into that port 
the letter- of -marque Ifalvina, mounting ten guns. She was a 
rich prize, laden with wines from the Mediterranean. The 
Scourge, Captain Nicoll, mounting fifteen guns, was another 
successful New York privateer, and made a long cruise in Eu- 
ropean waters. 

The Scourge sailed from New York in April, 1813, and 
steered directly for the coasts of Northern Europe. She was 
frequently in the company of the Rattlesnake, a Philadelphia 
cruiser — a brig of fourteen guns. The Scourge roamed along 
the coast of Norway, and captured many British vessels, which 
were sent into the port of Drontheim and sold there. The 
trophies which she gathered in that region were sixteen can- 
nons. On her way home she made several captures. During 
her whole cruise of a little more than a year she made four 
hundred and twenty prisoners. The British thought her name 
an appropriate one, for she was a severe scourge to British 
commerce. 

In the summer of 1813, a little 2-gun vessel, called the Teas- 
er, sailed from New York with fifty men. She was command- 
ed by a desperate character named Johnson. His vessel was 
captured by a British vessel-of-war, and Johnson was released 
on his parole. He soon afterward violated his pledge, and en- 
tered the Young Teaser, Captain Dawson, as first lieutenant. 

In June (1813) the Young Teaser was closely pursued by an 
English man-of-war, and was likely to be taken, in which case 
Johnson knew death would be his fate. Dawson called his 
oflicers in consultation, and, while they were deliberating, one 
of the sailors called out to the captain that Lieutenant Johnson 
had just gone into the cabin with a blazing fire-brand. The 
next instant the Young Teaser was blown into atoms. Only 
six men escaped ; all the others perished in a moment. 

Early in July, 1813, an event occurred off Sandy Hook 
which produced great excitement in New York at the time. 



CAPTURE OF THE " EAGLE. 271 

The British 74-o-nn ship Poictiers was cruising in that vicinity, 
having for her tender the sloop Eagle. At that time Commo- 
dore Lewis (ah'eady mentioned on page 230) was in command 
of a flotilla of gun-boats watching in New York harbor, the East 
River, and Long Lsland Sound. He borrowed a fishing-smack, 
put on board of her forty armed men concealed, and sent her 
out to capture the Eagle. A calf, a goose, and a sheep were 
secured on her deck, and with these and only three men in the 
garb of fishermen visible as a crew, she went out beyond the 
Narrows. 

The Eagle, giving chase, overliauled the smack. Seeing live- 
stock on board, the captain ordered her to go to the Poictiers. 
At that moment the preconcerted watchword, "Lawrence," was 
given, when the armed men arose from their hiding-place, rush- 
ed upon the deck of the Eagle, and delivering a volley of mus- 
ketry, sent her astonished crew below in dismay. The colors 
of the Eagle were immediately struck, and she w-as taken as a 
prize into the harbor of New York. The citizens were cele- 
brating the anniversary of independence on the Battery, and 
thousands of them gave a boisterous welcome to the smack and 
her prisoners, with loud huzzas and cannon peals. 

A month after this stirring event the private-armed schooner. 
Commodore Decatur, Captain Diron, carrying seven guns and 
about one hundred men, had a desperate combat with the Brit- 
ish war-schooner Dominica, carrying sixteen guns and eighty 
men. The Decatur was in the track of the West India trad- 
ers returning to England. The contest occurred in the after- 
noon of the 5tli of August. After a fierce conflict with can- 
nons and muskets, the Decatur forced her bowsprit over the 
stern of the Dominica, when her jib-boom penetrated the main- 
sail of her antagonist. In the face of a murderous fire of mus- 
ketry the men of the Decatur boarded the Dominica, and en- 
gaged in a sanguinary battle, hand to hand, with swords, pis- 
tols, and small arms. The colors of the Dominica were hauled 



272 STORY OF THE UNITED STATES NAVY. 

down by the boarders, and she became a prize. Captain Diron 
started for Charleston with his capture. On the following day 
he captured another vessel, the London Trader, with a valu- 
able cargo from Surinam, and entered Charleston harbor in 
safety. 

The privateer Globe, which took a large British ship a prize 
into Hampton Roads, Virginia, had a desperate encounter not 
far from Funchal, in November, 1813. On the 3d of that 
month she chased two armed vessels. They came to close 
quarters, and the crew of the Globe attempted to board one of 
them, but failed. Just then the other vessel came up and gave 
the Globe a terrible raking fire, which almost disabled her. 
They fought at close quarters until the larger vessel struck her 
colors. Then the other ship poured in broadside after broad- 
side, at half pistol-shot distance, and reduced the Globe almost 
to a sinking wreck. But she continued to give her antagonist 
such heavy blows that she, too, struck her colors. As the Globe 
was proceeding to take possession of her first prize, that vessel 
hoisted her colors and gave the victor a tremendous broadside. 
While the latter hauled off for repairs the two vessels escaped. 
They were packet brigs — one carrying eighteen guns, and the 
other sixteen, mostly brass. In this desperate encounter the 
Globe lost eight men killed and fifteen wounded. 

In the year 1814 the American privateers were as active as 
ever, yet during the first eight or nine months of that year 
they engaged in no performance deserving the name of a naval 
action. In September this monotony of uneventful cruises 
was broken by the private -armed ship Harpy, which fell in 
with the British packet Princess Elizabeth, and captured her 
after a brief but very sharp conflict. She was armed wdth ten 
guns, and manned by thirty-eight men. She had on board a 
Turkish ambassador for England, an aide-de-camp to a British 
general, a lieutenant of a 74-line-of-battle ship, and $10,000 in 
specie. The money, with several pipes of wine and some of 



ATTACK OX THE "GENERAL ARMSTRONG." 2T^ 

lier cannons, was transferred from the Elkaheth to the Harpy. 
The veraainder of her armament was cast overboard. The ship 
was ransomed for $2000, and was allowed to pass on her voyage. 

Not h)no- after this encounter, one of the most desperate and 
famous combats recorded in the history of American privateer- 
ing occurred in a neutral Portuguese harbor of Fayal, one of 
the Azores or Western Islands. The privateer General Arm- 
stronr/, of New York, commanded by Captain Samuel C. Reid, 
while lying in that neutral harbor, was attacked by a Brit- 
ish squadron on the 2Gth of September, 1814. The assailants 
were the Plautacfenet^ 74 guns ; the frigate Rota, 44 ; and brig 
Carnation., 18 — the whole under the command of Commodore 
Lloyd. The Armstrong carried only seven guns and ninety 
men, including her officers. 

Lloyd, in flagrant violation of the hiws and usages of neu- 
trality, sent in on that evening four large launches weD armed, 
and manned by about forty men each. Reid, suspecting dan- 
ger, was at that time warping his vessel under the guns of the 
castle that guarded the harbor. These and the guns of the 
privateer opened fire upon the launches simultaneously, and 
they vi'ere driven away after slight resistance. 

At midnight fourteen launches and five hundred men made 
a second attack, and, after a terrible combat for forty minutes, 
were repulsed with a loss of one hundred and twenty killed, 
and one hundred and thirty wounded. A third attack was 
made at daybreak by the brig-of-war Carnation. She hurled 
heavy shot ; but the rapidly-delivered fire with great precision 
by the Armstrong soon so cut up the assailant, that she hastily 
withdrew. The privateer was so much damaged by this time 
that Captain Reid knew she could not sustain another such 
attack, so he ordered her to be scuttled and abandoned. The 
British boarded her and set her on fire. During ten hours 
the British lost over three hundred men killed and wounded, 
while the Americans lost only two killed and seven wounded. 



2V4 



STORY OF THE UNITEf) STATES NAVY. 



Lloyd's squadron was part of an expedition gathering at 
Jamaica for the capture of New Orleans and the invasion of 
Louisiana, and he wished to seize the Aimstrong and place her 
under his command. He was so much detained in having his 
own vessels repaired that the fleet sailed from Jamaica full ten 
days later than the time appointed for its departure. Mean- 
while, General Jackson had so placed New Orleans in a state of 




8AMUKL C. KKIT>. 



defence that it was saved. By the attack on the Armstrong 
the Americans lost a vessel but saved a city, and perhaps a 
vast territory. 

Reid received unbounded praise for his gallant defence of 
the Armstrong. The event produced a grateful sensation 
throughout the LTnited States, and various honors were be- 
stowed upon the brave captain. New York gave him thanks 



THE "NEUFCHATEL AND " SAUCY JACK. 27o 

and a sword, and the country rung with applauses because of 
Lis valor. 

At about this time New Yorkers sent out a splendid pri- 
vate-armed ship, the Prince of Neufchdtel, Captain Ordronaux, 
armed with seventeen guns, and manned by one hundred and 
fifty persons. She created great havoc among British mer- 
chantmen. During a single cruise she was chased, at different 
times, by seventeen armed British vessels, and escaped them 
all. She took back to the United States much specie, and 
goods to the value of $300,000. 

On the 11th of October (1814) the NeiifcMtel encountered 
five armed boats from the frigate Endymion, off Nantucket. 
The boats were so arranged as to attack her at all points at 
once, but after an engagement of twenty minutes the assailants 
cried for quarter. It was granted. One of the boats had gone 
to the bottom, with forty-one of the forty-three men that oc- 
cupied it; and of the whole number of men in the five boats 
(one hundred and eleven), a larger portion were killed, wound- 
ed, or made prisoners. The privateer lost seven killed and 
twenty-four wounded. She was afterward captured and sent 
to England. 

A small clipper-built vessel called Saucy JacTc, belonging 
to Charleston, South Carolina, illustrated by her conduct the 
appropriateness of her name. She was too fleet for the English 
cruisers, and w^as skilfully managed. She carried six carriage 
guns and one long 9-pounder, and was seen everywhere. At 
midnight, October 31st, 1814, she chased two vessels off the 
coast of Santo Domingo, fired upon them when near enough, 
and on coming up to them in the morning ascertained that one 
of them carried sixteen, and the other eighteen guns. Nothing 
daunted, her people boarded one of the English vessels, when it 
was discovered that she was full of men, and a war-vessel. The 
boarders hastened back to the Saucy Jack, when she took to 
her heels and escaped. The two vessels chased her, and hurled 



276 STORY OF THE UNITED STATES NAVY. 

grape and musket balls upon her, but within an hour she was 
out of reach of their great guns. Her chief antagonist was the 
British bomb-ship Volcano, with the transport Golden Fleece. 
The Saucy Jack afterward captured the Pelham, 10 guns, and 
thirty-eight men, with a cargo valued at $80,000. 

The schooner Kemp, of Baltimore, Captain Jacobs, was a very 
successful privateer. Early in December (1814), she chased 
a squadron of eight merchant-ships in the Gulf Stream, con- 
voyed by a frigate, which in turn chased the Kemp, but she 
eluded the pursuers in the darkness. The next day she saw 
the merchant-ships drawn up in battle order, when, at noon, 
she bore down upon them, broke through their line, and while 
in the midst of them she discharged her whole armament 
among them. They were thrown into the greatest confusion. 
Within an hour four of them were prizes to the Kemp. If 
she had had men enough to man the vessels, she could have 
taken the whole squadron. During all this time the convoy 
frigate was absent vainly looking for the saucy privateer. The 
prizes, with forty-six cannons and one hundred and thirty-four 
prisoners, were sent into Charleston. They were the fruit of 
a six-days' cruise. 

While the Saucy Jack was on this cruise, the privateer il/bw- 
mouth, of Baltimore, was destroying British commerce off New- 
foundland. At one time she had a desperate encounter with 
an English transport with over three hundred troops on board. 
Her superior speed saved her from capture. 

The Lawrence was another successful Baltimore privateer, 
carrying eighteen guns, and one hundred and eleven men. Dur- 
ing a single month, ending January 25th, 1815, she captured 
thirteen vessels, and took one hundred and six prisoners. 

Just at the close of the war, which was ended by a proclama- 
tion of peace in February, 1815, the Macdonough, of Rhode 
Island, had a sharp fight with a British ship, the name of which 
is not recorded. She was a vessel filled with troops, and the 



RESULTS OF AMERICAN PRIVATEERING. 277 

MacdonoiKjh suffered dreadfully iu inauo-Ied sails aud riggino-, 
and loss of men. Her antagonist, in addition to her over- 
whelming number of musketeers, carried eighteen 9-pounders. 
The combat occurred at musket-shot distance. The Macdon- 
ough succeeded in escaping from the British ship, and arrived 
safely at Savannah on the 7th of March. The war was then 
over. 

Before the close of 1814 the exploits of the American pri- 
vateers had inspired the British mercantile classes with terror. 
Indeed, they began to seriously contemplate the probabilities 
of the complete destruction of British commerce. Fear mao-- 
nified the numbers, power, and exploits of these expert cruisers. 
Merchants, in public meetings, remonstrated against these dep- 
redations, and called upon the government to make peace. It 
was asserted that one of these " sea-devils " was rarely captured, 
but impudently bade defiance alike to English privateers and 
heavy 74:'s. Insurance was refused on most vessels, and on 
some the premium was as high as thirty -three per centum. 
"Only think," said a London journal, "thirteen guineas for 
one hundred pounds was paid to insure vessels across the Ii'ish 
Channel ! Such a thing, we believe, never happened before." 

During the war the American private-armed vessels took, 
burnt, and destroyed about sixteen hundred British merchant- 
men of all classes. This was done in the space of three years 
and nine months, while the number of American merchant-ves- 
sels destroyed during that time did not vary much from five 
hundred. The American merchant marine was much smaller 
than that of the British, and embargo acts had caused many 
vessels to be lying in port when war w\as declared. Many val- 
uable vessels were also run up streams out of the reach of Brit- 
ish cruisers. Large fortunes were secured by the owners of the 
successful privateers, which their descendants are enjoying to 
this day. 

One more naval operation connected with the Second War 



278 STORY OF THE UNITED STATES NAVY. 

for Independence remains to be noticed. It was a struggle on 
Lake Borgne, Louisiana, the nearest water communication be- 
tween the city of New Orleans and the Gulf of Mexico. 

At the time when a British expedition, to attack New Or- 
leans and invade Louisiana, was fitting out at Jamaica, there 
was a small flotilla of gun-boats, under the command of Thom- 
as Ap Catesby Jones, patrolling this lake, for rumors of the in- 
tended invasion had reached New Orleans. Jones had been 
instructed to watch the approach of an enemy, and to take 
such a position as would enable him, in the event of the Brit- 
ish making their way into Lake Borgne, to cut off their barges 
and prevent their landing. 

This British expedition had been prepared with great secrecy 
as to its destination, so that New Orleans might be taken by 
surprise; therefore, there was much astonishment when, on the 
13th of December, the invaders, when about to enter Lake 
Borgne, discovered Jones's flotilla awaiting their approach. It 
had to be met by immediate and vigorous action. The British 
admiral (Cochrane) prepared a fleet of sixty barges to meet, 
attack, and destroy this unexpected barrier to the execution of 
their well-laid plan of invasion. These barges each carried a 
carronade, and an ample number of armed volunteers from the 
fleet. Jones had five gun-boats, a tender, and a despatch-boat, 
carrying twenty-three guns, and a total number of one hundred 
and eighty men. His flag-ship was a sloop of eighty tons. 

On the 14th the hostile forces met and engaged in a fierce 
and desperate struggle, but by the force of overwhelming num- 
bers the British gained a complete victory after a combat of 
about an hour. But that victory cost them several of their 
barges, which were shattered and sunk, and almost three hun- 
dred men killed and wounded. 

The Second War for Independence was now over. A treaty 
of peace had been negotiated at Ghent, in Belgium, on the 24th 
of December, 1814, and was ratified by the respective govern- 



THE BAKBARY STATES HUMBLED. 



279 



luents soon afterward. Peace was proclaimed by the Presi- 
dent of the United States on the 18th of February, 1815. 
There were great rejoicing-s on both sides of the Atlantic be- 




TEAOE MEDAL. 



cause of this happy event, and a medal was struck in England 
commemorative of the treaty. 

The government of the United States was now free to em- 
ploy its strength in casting off its bondage to the Barbary pow- 
ers (see page 65). In doing this there were presented mate- 
rials for one of the most brilliant chapters in the history of the 
American Navy. 

The Dey of Algiers, believing that our navy had been de- 
stroyed by that of Great Britain in the war just ended, sent out 
his corsairs to depredate on American commerce. Determined 
not to pay tribute to the North African robber, nor to endure 
his insolence, the United States Government accepted this chal- 
lenge for war, and sent Commodore Decatur to humble him. 

Decatur sailed with a small squadron in May, 1815. His 
flag- ship was the Guerriere^ 44 guns. When he passed the 
Strait of Gibraltar into the Mediterranean Sea, he found the 
Algerine pirate fleet cruising in search of American vessels. 
On the I7th of June he met, fought, and captured the flag-ship 



280 



STORY OF THE UNITED STATES NAVY. 



of the Algerine admiral (a frigate of forty -four guns), and 
anotliev pirate sliip with six hundred men. With these prizes 
he sailed for the harbor of Algiers, and demanded of the ruler 
(June 28th) the instant surrender of all American prisoners in 
his hands, full indemnity for all American property destroyed 
by his forces, and all claims to tribute from the United States 
thereafter. 




AVhen the Dey heard of the fate of a part of his fleet, that 
terrified ruler hastened to comply with Decatur's demands. 
The commodore summoned him to the deck of the Guerriere, 
with his captives. The Dey appeared with them and some of 
his officers on the 30th of June. There he signed a treaty in 
accordance with the demands of Decatur, and left the frigate 
in deep humiliation. 

After this triumph Decatur sailed for Tunis, and demanded 



RELEASE OF CAPTIVES AT TRIPOLI. 



281 



and received from the Basliaw, or ruler of that State, $46,000, 
in payment for American vessels, which he had allowed the 
British to capture in his harbor. This was in July. Then 
Decatur proceeded to Tripoli, the capital of another of the 
Barbary States ; and in August he demanded from its ruler 
$25,000 for the same kind of injury to property, and the re- 
lease of prisoners. The Tripolitans' treasury was nearly empty, 
and the commodore accepted, instead of cash, the release from 




DECATUR 8 MONUMENT. 



captivity of eight Danish and two Neapolitan seamen, who 
were held as slaves. This was Decatur's last service afloat.^ 



' Stephen Decatur was born in Maryland, and at the time of his death 
he was forty-one years of age. He was one of the most active young offi- 

13 



282 STORY OF THE UNITED STATES XAVY. 

This cruise of a little American squadron in the Mediterra- 
nean Sea, and its results, gave full security to American com- 
merce, and greatly exalted the character of the government of 
the United States in the opinion of European nations. A por- 
tion of its navy, during the summer of 1815, had accomplished, 
in the way of humbling the rulers of the Barbary States and 
weakening their power for mischief, what the combined gov- 
ernments of Europe had not dared to attempt. It was a nota- 
ble supplement to the history of the navy of the United States 
in the Second War for Independence. 

cers who urged the punishment of Barron by suspension from the service 
(see page 94). A bitter quarrel between them ensued, which resulted in 
a duel, near Bladensburg, in which Decatur was mortally wounded. He 
was at that time a member of the Board of Naval Commissioners, and re- 
sided at "Kalorama," near Georgetown, D. C, a fine mansion built by Joel 
Barlow (see p. 280). Decatur died in Washington, March 22d, 1820, and 
his remains were taken to Kalorama. They now rest under an elegant 
commemorative monument in St. Peter's church-yard, Philadelphia. 



f 



SOUTH SEA EXPLORING EXPEDITION. 283 



CHAPTER XX. 

In time of peace the American Navy has been employed in 
the beneficent work of giving aid to commerce, in making ex- 
plorations of strange seas, in scientific investigations of ocean 
phenomena, and in the operations of the coast survey, which 
was begun in 1817. 

At about that period American commerce was greatly an- 
noyed and injured by the swarms of privateers sailing under 
the flags of the newly organized South American republics. 
They had degenerated into pirates, and so become outlaws, 
subject to chastisement by any nation. They infested the 
West India seas and the northern coasts of South America. 

Against these pirates, and to protect the commerce of the 
United States, the government sent Commodore Oliver Hazard 
Perry, with two ships-of-war, in the spring of 1819, to those 
seas, where he soon died of yellow-fever. Very little was done 
toward suppressing the pirates until 1822, when a small Amer- 
ican squadron destroyed twenty piratical vessels on the coast 
of Cuba. The good work was completed the next year by 
Commodore David Porter. 

In the summer of 1838, a squadron of six vessels, composed 
of the sloops - of - war Vincennes and Peacock, brig Porpoise, 
schooners Flying -Fish and Sea-Gull, and store-ship Relief, 
sailed from Norfolk, Virginia, for an exploring voyage in the 
southern seas. The expedition was commanded by Lieuten- 
ant Charles Wilkes, with a corps of scientists, nine in number, 
including Titian R. Peale — yet (1880) living — as artist and 
naturalist. 



284 STORY OF THE UNITED STATES NAVY. 

This expedition proceeded down the coast of South America, 
and bore away to unknown seas southward. It cruised along 
what was supposed to be the shores of a southern continent, 
seventeen hundred miles, in the vicinity of 66° south latitude. 
The expedition made a voyage of ninety thousand miles in 
the course of about four years, returning in 1842. It brought 
back a valuable collection of specimens of the natural his- 
tory and curiosities of the islands of the South Atlantic and 
Pacific Oceans, a large portion of which are in the Smithsonian 
Institution at Washington. Much scientific information was 
obtained ; but, owing to imperfect methods of publication 
of the results, that knowledge has not been properly diffused 
among the people. 

When the war with Mexico broke out in 1846, a naval force 
was sent to the Gulf of Mexico, under the command of Com- 
modore Connor. On the 14th of November (1846), Connor 
captured Tampico, a Mexican seaport; and at about the same 
time Commodore Matthew C. Perry captured Tobasco and 
Tuspan. In the spring of 1847, Connor assisted General Scott 
in his successful attack upon the castle of San Juan de Ulloa 
and Vera Cruz. He was succeeded in command in the gulf 
by Commodore Perry. 

In the summer of 1846, Commodore Sloat was in com- 
mand on the Pacific coast. On the 7tli of July he bombard- 
ed and captured the city of Monterey (King's Mountain) on 
that coast. On the 9th Commodore Montgomery took pos- 
session of San Francisco. Almost a week later Commodore 
Stockton arrived on that station, and took the chief command ; 
and on the l7th of August he and Colonel Fremont took pos- 
session of the city of Los Angeles (the Angels). The naval 
forces assisted the land troops in making a complete conquest 
of California. 

Because of the increasing intercourse of Americans with 
Eastern Asia, carried on across the Pacific Ocean, friendly rela- 



NAVAL EXPEDITION TO JAPAN. 285 

tlons with the exclusive Japanese nation became desirable. To 
establish such amity the United States Government sent a 
squadron of seven vessels, under the command of Commodore 
M. C. Perry, in the autumn of 1852, to convey a letter from the 
President of our republic to the Emperor of Japan. In that 
letter the Japanese ruler was invited to agree to a treaty of 




MATTHEW C. PKRllY. 



friendship and commerce between the two governments. Af- 
ter visiting and surveying the Loo Choo Islands, Perry's squad- 
ron entered the Bay of Yeddo, Japan, in July, 1853. They 
were greeted by a fleet of Japanese government boats sent to 
arrest their progress ; but as the steam-vessels passing rapidly 
into the harbor with sails all furled, the Japanese officials were 
astonished, for they had never seen a steamship before. 

Perry had been instructed to use no violence with his ves- 
sels unless attacked, in which case he was to let the Japanese 
feel the full weight of his power. He proceeded at once to 
perform his errand. He sent the letter to the Emperor, and 



286 



STORY OF THE UNITED STATES NAVY. 



asked for an interview and an answer. The sovereign was 
shy, and it was several months before he gave an answer. Fi- 
nally, in March, 1854, a treaty was signed by the contracting 
parties, and friendly relations were thereby established between 
the two countries which have since continually increased in 
strength and importance. In 1860 a large embassy from the 
Empire of Japan visited the United States. 

These are among the most important services of the Ameri- 
can Navy during a long interval of peace. It had occasional 
encounters in foreign ports, but none that were very serious. 




VPANESE GOVEKNMENT BOAT. 



It was engaged in frustrating attempts to reopen the African 
slave-trade, and it had a share in Arctic explorations. 

The navy has always gone hand-in-hand with commerce in 
opening new markets for the products of the American soil, 
and has ever been a faithful and efficient coadjutor of the 
American commercial marine — the Xavy of Peace. Alas ! at 
the end of forty-six years, after the close of the Second War 
for Independence, this navy was suddenly and unexpectedly 
summoned to assist the land-forces of the nation in defending 
the life of the Republic against the deadly assaults of a portion 
of its own children. 



mm, 




BEGINNING OF THE CIVIL WAR. 



289 



The Civil War. 

We will now glance at some of the most important services 
of the American Navy during the Civil War in 1861-65. 

At the close of 1860 that war was begun in Charleston 
harbor, when South Carolina insurgents fired upon the Sta7' of 
the West, a government vessel taking supplies to the garrison 
in Fort Sumter. The United States Government was thereby 




"STAE OF THE WEST. 



notified that no respect would be accorded to American naval 
vessels in the ports of slave-labor States. President Buchanan's 
administration was then drawing to a close. That of President 
Lincoln, which succeeded it early in March, 1861, made the 
preservation of the power and dignity of the Republic its first 
concern. 

When the new Secretary of the Navy (Gideon Welles) " took 
an account of stock," as a merchant would say, in his Depart- 
ment, he found it almost bankrupt in physical force. Like the 
army, it had been placed far beyond the reach of the govern- 
ment for immediate use, and was employed on distant stations. 

The total number of vessels of all classes then belono-ino- to 
13* 



290 STORY OF THE UNITED STATES NAVY. 

the navy -was ninety, carrying, or designed to carry, two thou- 
sand four hundred and fifteen guns. Of this number only for- 
ty-two were in commission. Twenty-eight ships, carrying in 
the aggregate eight hundred and seventy-four guns, were lying 
in ports dismantled, and none of them could be made ready for 
sea in less than several weeks' time : some of them would re- 
quire at least six months. The most of those in commission 
had been sent to distant seas ; and the entire available force for 
the defence of the whole Atlantic coast of the Republic was 
the Brooklyn, of 25 guns, and the store-ship Relief, of 2 guns. 
The Brookbjn drew too much water to enter Charleston 
harbor (where the war had begun) with safety ; and the Relief 
had been ordered to the coast of Africa with stores for the 
squadron there. Many of the officers of the navy were natives 
of slave-labor States, and a large number of these abandoned 
their flag and joined in the insurrection. Not less than sixty 
Southern officers, including eleven at the Naval Academy at An- 
napolis, had then deserted their government in its hour of peril. 

So early as the close of January, 1861, it was evident that 
the insurgents were about to seize the revenue-cutters in South- 
ern ports — the Lewis Cass at Mobile, and the Robert McClel- 
land at New Orleans. General Dix, then Secretary of the 
Treasury, sent a special agent to secure them. The Cass had 
already been seized; and when the agent arrived in New Or- 
leans he found Breshwood, commander of the McClelland, un- 
der the control of the Secessionists. He absolutely refused to 
obey an order sent by Secretary Dix. The agent, by telegraph, 
informed the Secretary of this disobedience, when Dix sent an 
order for the arrest of Breshwood, and saying: "If any one 
attempts to haul down the American flag, shoot him on the 
spot!" The collector of the port was in complicity with the 
Secessionists, and the McClelland was given to the authorities 
of Louisiana. 

Fort Sumter needed re-enforcement and relief. Onlv throuo-h 




^ 





■y,m 



*^W ^^:^a^JtAy/^ifi^!^/^a^^ 



^/i1/^ 








DIX'S FAMOUS OEDEB. 



ATTEMPT TO RELIEVE FORT SUMPTER. 293 

the navy could tliey be furnished. Mr. Fox, the Assistant Sec- 
retary of the Navy, prepared a relief squadron early in April 
(1861), consisting of the Pawnee^ Pocahontas^ Powhatan, and 
Harriet Lane, with three brigs, all ordered to rendezvous off 
Charleston harbor. Mr. Fox sailed in the Baltic, with two hun- 
dred soldiers, to re-enforce the garrison. A storm and counter 
orders broke up the relief squadron, and all the Baltic accom- 
plished was to bear away, at the middle of April, the garrison 
of Fort Sumter, which they had been compelled to evacuate 
because of a lack of supplies. 

In the spring of 1861 the navy-yard at Gosport, nearly op- 
posite Norfolk, Virginia, was filled with arms and munitions of 
war, and several ships were lying there dismantled. Circum- 
stances pointed to an early attempt to seize the post and the 
vessels by Virginia insurgents, and on April 10th the comman- 
dant of the station was ordered to put the vessels and the pub- 
lic property in a condition to be quickly removed. The com- 
mandant, having confidence in the honor of his subordinate of- 
ficers, was tardy, and Commodore Paulding was sent there to 
carry out the order. It was too late. An armed force of in- 
surgents was about to seize the naval station. The ships were 
scuttled, set on fire, and sunk, and as much property in the 
yard as possible was burnt or otherwise destroyed. Among 
the disabled vessels was the Merrimac, which the Confederates 
afterward raised and armored. Full 2000 cannons fell into the 
hands of the insurgents. 

Early in February, 1861, the leading Secessionists in the 
South met at Montgomery, Alabama, and formed a Confederate 
government, with Jefferson Davis as its head. In April he is- 
sued commissions to privateers to depredate on the commerce 
of the United States and the property of the government. The 
first of these vessels so commissioned was named the Lady Da- 
vis. Soon afterward the Savannah and Petrel were commis- 
sioned, and went to sea on their destructive errands. 



294 



STORY OF THE UNITED STATES NAVY. 



Very soon afterward the Savannah discovered the United 
States brig Perry ^ and, mistaking' her for a merchant -vessel, 
bore down to attack her. When the mistake was discovered, 
the Savannah tried to escape, but, after a short and sharp en- 
counter, she was compelled to surrender. Her crew were im- 
prisoned as pirates for awhile, but were finally released and 
paroled as prisoners of war. 

The Petrel was the re-named United States revenue -cutter 




UIKAM PACTLCING. 



Aikin, which her disloyal commander had placed in the pos- 
session of the insurgents at Charleston, South Carolina. She 
went to sea in July, 1861. Seeing the United States frigate 
St. Laivrence in the disguise of a merchantman, the Petrel re- 
garded her as a rich prize, and attempted to capture her. The 
St. Lawrence pretended to try to escape. The Petrel gave 
chase. When slie was within fair range, the St. Lawrence open- 
ed her ports and gave the pursuer the contents of three heavy 



295 

guns. An 8-inch shell exploded in the Petrel, and a 32-ponnd 
solid shot struck her amidships below water-inark. She was 
made a total wreck instantly, and went to the bottom, leaving 
the foaming waters above her strewn with splinters and her 
struggling crew. The latter scarcely knew what had happened. 
A flash of fire, a thunder-peal, the crash of timbers, and in- 
gulfment in the sea had been the incidents of a moment of 
their experience. 

Meanwhile the Navy Department had been energetic and 
untiring in efforts to increase the marine force of the nation. 
Merchant-vessels had been purchased and fitted up as war-ships, 
and others were constructed. At the beginning of July (1861) 
'there were forty-three armed vessels engaged in the service of 
blockading Southern ports and in defence of the coasts on the 
eastern side of the continent. These were divided into two 
squadrons, known respectively as the Atlantic and Gulf squad- 
ron. The former, consisting of twenty-two vessels, two hundred 
and ninety-six guns, and three thousand three hundred men, 
was commanded by Flag-officer S. H. Stringham. The latter 
consisted of twenty-one vessels, two hundred and eighty -two 
guns, and three thousand five hundred men, and was under 
Flag-officer W. Me r vine. 

Before the close of 1861, the Secretary of the Navy had 
purchased and put into commission one hundred and thirty- 
seven vessels, and had contracted for the building of a large 
number of steamships of a substantial class, to endure all 
weathers off the coast. There w^ere also built and put afloat 
before the close of the year five iron -clad steamers, two of 
them carrying forty guns, one thirty-two guns, and two twen- 
ty-two guns. In his report the Secretary called the attention 
of the government to the importance of having iron-clad ves- 
sels, and recommended the appointment of a board to consider 
the matter, which was done. Already the government had 
expended half a million dollars in the construction of a float- 



296 STORY OF THE UNITED STATES NAVY. 

ing-battery for harbor defence by Messrs. Stevens, of Hoboken;, 
New Jersey. 

From March 4th, 1861, to July 1st, two hundred and fifty- 
nine naval officers of Southern birth had resigned, or been dis- 
missed from the service for disloyalty. Their places were soon 
filled by persons who had retired from the navy to civil pur- 
suits — masters and masters' mates of merchant-vessels, and oth- 
ers who patriotically entered the service; and so promptly was 
the call for recruits for the navy answered, that no vessel was 
ever detained more than two or three days for want of men. 
The Naval School and public property at Annapolis were re- 
moved to Newport, Rhode Island, for safety. 

Among the smaller exploits of the navy in 1861 was an at- 
tack upon Confederate batteries at Aquia Creek and Matthias 
Point, on the Potomac, by the gun-boat Freeborn, and one or 
two others, in May and June. In one of these encounters 
Captain Ward, of the Freeborn, was killed. On July 25th, 
Lieutenant Crosby, with five launches and four boats from 
Fortress Monroe, went up a small stream, not far from that 
fort, and destroyed ten small Confederate vessels, and captured 
a schooner heavily laden with provisions and other articles. 

In August following a more formidable task was undertaken. 
Hatteras Inlet, through which British blockade -runners were 
continually carrying supplies to the insurgents, was guarded by 
two forts built by the Confederates. It was determined to at- 
tempt their capture. A land and naval force was fitted out at 
Fortress Monroe and in Hampton Roads, the former commanded 
by General B. F. Butler, and the latter by Commodore String- 
ham. They left the Roads for Hatteras on the 26th. String- 
ham's flag-ship was the Minnesota. She was accompanied by 
the Pawnee, Monticello, Harriet Lane, Susquehanna, Wabash, 
and Cumberland. 

On the morning of the 28th the vessels opened fire on the 
forts. Under cover of that fire troops were landed. The as- 



CAPTURE OF THE HATTEKAS FORTS. 297 

sault had continued about four hours, when, supposing the near- 
est fort was about to surrender, two of the vessels entered the 
inlet to take possession. The silent fort suddenly opened fire 
upon them, and the ships were in much peril for awhile. 

Early in the morning of the 29th the contest was renewed. 
Meanwhile the Confederates had been re-enforced by the arrival 
of a flotilla from Pamlico Sound, commanded by Captain Bar- 
ron, and some troops for the forts. In this attack on the sec- 
ond day, the Minnesota, Susquehanna, Wabash, Harriet Lane, 
and Cumberland took part. Toward noon a white flag appear- 
ed over one of the forts, and both were formally surrendered. 
The loss of these forts was a severe blow to the Confederates, 
as it closed an important channel of supply from the British, 
and opened the way to very important results. After some 
further operations in the vicinit}^ the squadron withdrew. 

Late in 1861 the Nationals and Confederates began the con- 
struction of armored or iron-clad gun-boats for service on in- 
terior waters. A hint for their form and materials had been 
given almost fifty years before, when a patent was granted to 
Thomas Gregg, of Pennsylvania (March, 1814), for an iron-clad 
gun-boat with double sloping sides. Such boats were first con- 
structed and put into use on the rivers in the Mississippi Valley 
at the beginning of the late Civil War, for co-operation with 
the armies, and to protect the navigation of those streams. 

Early in 1862 a flotilla was built at St. Louis and at Cairo, 
near the mouth of the Ohio River, and placed under the com- 
mand of Flag-oflScer A. XL Foote. It was composed of twelve 
gun-boats, a part of them armored, and carrying in the aggregate 
one hundred and twenty-six cannons. They were built wide 
in proportion to their length, so that in the still waters of the 
rivers they might have almost the steadiness of land batteries. 
The sides of these armored boats were sloping upward and 
downward from the waters edge at an angle of forty-five de- 
aTees, so that shot and shell mio-ht o'lance harmlesslv from them. 



298 



STORY OF THE UNITED STATES XAYY. 



The hulls were made of heavy oak timber covered with thick 

plates of iron, and they were moved by powerful steam-engines. 

The Confederates had built a queer kind of gun-boat at 

New Orleans, which they called a " ram," because it had a strong 




A. U. FOOTE. 



iron beak on its bow for fierce pushing. This monster was named 
Manassas, and was commanded by J. S. Hollins, late of the 
United States Navy. The Nationals had a small blockading 
squadron at the South-west Pass of the Mississippi River in the 
autumn of 1861, and this " ram " was sent down to attack them. 
It made a furious assault, and in the hands of a more competent 
man might have done much mischief; but it accomplished lit- 
tle more than punching a hole in the side of the gun-boat Bick- 
mond, wounding a coal schooner, sinking a boat, and staving 
a gig. The apprehension that other like monsters might be 
sent down, hastened the preparations for the capture of New 
Orleans. 

At the close of October, 1861, a powerful land and naval 
force sailed from Hampton Roads for Port Royal Sound and 



EXPEDITION TO TORT ROYAL SOUND. 



299 



the islands on the Soutli Carolina coast. The naval armament 
was commanded by Commodore S. F. Dnpont ; the land-forces 
by General T. W. Sherman. There were eighteen war-vessels 
and thirty-three transports in the fleet, the latter carrying about 
fifteen thousand soldiers. A furious storm dispersed the fleet ; 
but all the vessels, excepting two transports which had sunk, 
rendezvoused at the entrance to Port Royal Sound by the 5th 
of November. On the right of that entrance, at Hilton Head, 
the Confederates had a fort mounting twenty-three heavy guns, 
and at the left, on Phillip's Island, was another mounting 
twenty heavy guns. About two miles from these forts, where 
the Broad River enters the sound, Commodore Tattnall, late of 
the United States Navy, commanded a flotilla of Confederate 
gun-boats, called a " mosquito fleet." 

On the morning of the 5th of November, the Wabash (Du- 
pont's flag-ship), with some of the larger tnmsports, crossed the 




IKON-OLAD GUN-BO\T, ISl^t 



bar. On the morning of the 7th the Wabash and thirteen 
other vessels began an attack on the Confederate forts, and 
drove the "mosquito fleet" into shallow water. The combat 
was very severe, and lasted about four hours, when the Confed- 
erates fled in a panic, leaving their forts in possession of the 



300 STOKY OF THE UNITED STATES NAYY. 

National Navy. Toward the end of the contest some other ves- 
sels joined in the fray. The fleet moved in circles, and deliv- 
ered their fire when nearest the forts. Diipont lost in all 
thirty-one Skilled and wounded. The chief spoils of victory 




F. DUPONT. 



were forty-eight fine cannons, and a large quantity of ammuni- 
tion and stores. By the evening of the 9th the fleet was in 
possession of other islands, also of Tybee Island, that guarded 
the entrance to the Savannah River. 



THE BLOCKADING SQUADRONS. 301 



CHAPTER XXL 

In 1862 the American Navy comprised seven distinct squad- 
rons, namely: (l) North Atlantic, guarding the Virginia and 
North Carolina coasts; (2) South x\tlantic, blockading the 
coasts of South Carolina, Georgia, and the north-east coast of 
Florida; (3) The Eastern Gulf Squadron, its range extending 
from Cape Canaveral, on the Florida coast, to Pensacola ; (4) 
The Western Gulf Squadron, its patrol extending from Pensa- 
cola to the Rio Grande ; (5) The Western Flotilla, on the Mis- 
sissippi River ; (6) The Potomac Flotilla, on the Potomac ; 
and (7) The James River Flotilla, on the James. 

Early in January, 1862, a joint naval and military expedition, 
under Flag-officer L. M. Goldsborough and General A. E. Burn- 
side, sailed from Hampton Roads for Roanoke Island, and to 
operate on the neighboring coasts of North Carolina. Golds- 
borough had seventeen light-draught vessels, with an aggregate 
armament of forty-eight heavy guns. On the 8th of February 
the fleet led in an attack upon the Confederate batteries on 
the island, and covered the landing of the troops the next day, 
which speedily effected its conquest. 

Leaving Roanoke, a portion of Goldsborough's flotilla, com- 
manded by Commodore C. S. Rowan, drove the Confederate 
vessels up the Pasquotank River to Elizabeth City, where they 
took shelter under the four guns of a land battery. The Con- 
federate flotilla was commanded by Commodore Ingraham, late 
of the United States Navy. In the face of a sharp fire from 
the battery. Rowan pressed forward, demolished this land de- 



302 STORY OF THE UNITED STATES NAVY. 

fence, and captured or destroyed tlie whole of the little Confed- 
erate fleet. 

At the beginning of February, 1862, the Western Flotilla, 
under Commodore Foote, bore an army commanded by Gen- 
eral U. S. Grant up the Tennessee River, to attack Fort Henry, 
Foote was compelled to perform that task (February 6th) with- 
out the help of the troops, who had been delayed in their 
marches after debarking by the wretchedness of the land travel. 
The fort was captured, the troops took possession, and the flo- 
tilla returned to "Cairo to procure mortar-boats to assist in an 
attack upon Fort Donelson, on the Cumbei'land River. 

Foote was not allowed time to procure the mortar -boats, 
but went up the Cumberland with his flotilla of gun -boats. 
He began the attack on the 14th with four iron-clad boats and 
two wooden ones. The Confederates were driven from their 
water batteries, after a very sharp conflict, when the gun-boats, 
seriously injured, and deprived of fifty-four men by death or 
wounds, retired, leaving the work of completing the capture 
of the fort to the army. The garrison, composed of thirteen 
thousand five hundred men, was surrendered on Sunday, Feb- 
ruary 16th, with three thousand horses, forty -eight field-pieces, 
seventeen heavy guns, twenty thousand muskets, and a large 
quantity of military stores. 

This victory elated the friends of the government, and com- 
pensated in a measure for the disappointment felt at the result 
of a recent transaction w-hich produced much commotion on 
both sides of the Atlantic, involving the great question of the 
rights of neutral vessels on the sea. It was about this which 
the Americans and British fought in the Second War for Inde- 
pendence. 

The Confedercites had appointed James M. Mason and John 
Slidell commissioners to foreign governments, the former to 
the English and the latter to tlfe French court. They sailed 
from Charleston on the 12th of October, 1861, their vessel elud- 



CAPTURE OF MASOX AND SLIDELL. 303 

ing the blockading squadron on a dark night. They went to 
Cuba, where they took passage in the English mail -steamer 
Trent for St. Thomas, to go from there to England. Captain 
Charles Wilkes (see page 283), returning from the coast of Af- 
rica in the sloop-of-vvar San Jacinto^ touched at Havana, and 
hearing of the commissioners, started in pursuit of the Trent. 
She was overtaken, and when within hailing distance Wilkes 
requested her to heave to. She kept on her course. 




011ARLE8 WILKES. 



Wilkes, who had called his men to quarters, fired a shell 
across the bow of the Trent, when she hove to. He sent a 
young officer on board the Trent to summon the commission- 
ers to go to the San Jacinto. The summons was treated with 
scorn. A proper force was sent for them, and they were com- 
pelled to yield. The prisoners were taken to Boston and con- 
fined in Fort Warren. Of this violation of a neutral flag the 
British Government loudly complained, and threatened war, si- 
multaneously with a demandfor the return of the prisoners. 
The United States Government had alreadv determined to re- 



304 STORY OF THE UNITED STATES NAVY. 

lease tliem wlien the demand came, because the act of Captain 
Wilkes was contrary to tlie long-avowed principles of that gov- 
ernment. All loyal people approved the act of Wilkes, irre- 
spective of State policy, but the government wisely adhered 
to its principles, and set the prisoners at liberty. 

After the success at Fort Donelson, Foote's flotilla was very 
active on the Mississippi River. The Confederates had a very 
strong post on the eastern bank of that stream, at Columbus, 
Kentucky. Foote proceeded with six gun-boats, early in March, 
to capture it, but when he approached, the Confederates had 
fled in great haste and retired to New Madrid at a great bend 
in the river, and to Island No. 10. These points, although a 
thousand miles from New Orleans, were considered as forming 
the key to the lower Mississippi and to that city. The Con- 
federates confidently expected that at this great bend in the 
river, its shores dotted with strong batteries, they might be 
able to say effectually to each National vessel on that stream, 
"Thus far shalt thou go, and no farther." 

New Madrid was captured by troops under General John 
Pope at near the middle of March. At the same time. Com- 
modore Foote left Cairo with seven armored gun-boats, one not 
armored, and ten mortar-boats for the purpose of co-operating 
with Pope. His powerful fleet arrived in sight of Island No. 
10 on Saturday, the 15th, where General Beauregard was in 
command, and who had so strongly fortified it that it seemed 
impregnable. That night Foote prepared for an immediate 
attack upon it, unmindful of its apparent strength. The Con- 
federates called it their Gibraltar. 

On Sunday morning, March 16th, Commodore Foote began 
the siege of Island No. 10 with his gun and mortar boats. His 
flag-ship Benton opened the combat with rifled cannon, and was 
followed by the mortar-boats. Land troops co-operated with 
him. The siege went on with varying fortunes until the first 
week in April, when Foote and his flotilla were yet above the 



ATTACK OX ISLAND NUMBER TEN. 



305 



island. Beauregai-d telegraphed to Riclnnoiid on the 5th, say- 
ing : 

'' The Northerners liave thrown three thousand shells and 
burnt fifty tons of gunpowder without damaging my batteries 
or killing one of my men." 

While Foote was pounding at Island No. 10 and its support- 
ing batteries on the main, Pope was chafing at New Madrid 




MOIITAII-150AT6 ON THE MlSLUSSirPI. 



with impatience to gain a footing where he might attack the 
island in its rear. A peninsula strongly guarded was the place 
he wished to secure. He tried to induce Foote to allow some 
of his vessels to run past the batteries on the island, and trans- 
port his troops to the peninsula, but the commodore hesitated. 
At length the gallant Captain Walke, commanding the gun- 
boat Carondelet, volunteered to undertake the perilous venture. 
Foote reluctantly consented. On the night of the 30th of 
April, during a violent thunder-storm, the Carondelct ran the 
fearful gauntlet in safetv. The frequent flashes of lightning 
revealed the position of the vessel, when a dozen batteries 

14 



306 STORY OF THE UNITED STATES NAVY. 

would open upon lier at once. Bravely slie passed on, and 
was received at New Madrid with demonstrations of great 

Meanwhile Pope had gained an important advantage by a 
canal which had been cut across the neck of a swampy penin- 
sula. It was wrought through a tangled forest of trees and 
vines, and was large enough to allow war-vessels and transports 
to pass through. Already a hundred volunteers from the fleet 
had captured a 6-gun battery by assault, and one by one the 
strong defences of the island were giving way. Perceiving this, 
Beauregard left the command with a subordinate officer and 
departed for Mississippi; and on the 10th of April (1862) his 
successor offered to surrender the now famous island to Foote, 
and it was done on that day. 

The number of prisoners surrendered to Foote and Pope at 
Island No. 10 was seven thousand two hundred and seventy- 
three. The spoils of victory were nearly twenty batteries, with 
one hundred and twenty-three cannons, varying from 32-pound- 
crs to 100-pounders ; seven thousand small arms; an immense 
amount of ammunition and stores; many horses; and four 
steamboats afloat. This victory, with another won by the Na- 
tional troops at Shiloh, on the Tennessee River, the previous 
day, produced a most profound sensation in all parts of the 
republic. The Confederates were astounded and disheartened ; 
the loyal people were exultant. 

Commodore Foote now went down the Mississippi with his 
gun-boats to attempt the capture of Memphis. There were 
fortifications above that city to be reduced, and a powerful 
flotilla of gun-boats under Commodore Hollins (see page 298) 
to be met and overcome, before reaching Memphis. Foote be- 
gan the siege of Fort Pillow on the 14th of April, and soon 
drove Hollins to the shelter of its guns. Pope could not co- 
operate, and Foote was left to carry on the siege alone. A 
wound in his ankle became so painful that he was compelled 



OrPOSlNG FLEETS ON THE MISSISSIPPI. 307 

to leave the expedition in charge of Flag-officer C. H, Davis, 
his second in command. 

Ilollins refitted his wounded vessels, and early in May ap- 
peared with several " rams." His flag-ship was the McRea, 
which was furnished with a sharp iron prow. On the 'morning 
of the 10th he made a furious attack upon the National gun 
and mortar boats. A fierce battle ensued, in which the heavy 
guns of Fort Pillow participated. Finally tlie Benton, of 
Smitli's fleet, sent a shell that penetrated the boiler of the 
McRea. She was soon enveloped in hot steam, which killed 
and scalded many of her people. Her colors were struck, and 
the conflict, which had raged for an hour, ceased, the Confed- 
erate flotilla withdrawing to a place cf safety. 

For more than three weeks the two fleets lay off Fort Pillow 
watching each other. Meanwhile the National flotilla had been 
re-enforced by a " ram " squadron, under Colonel Charles Eliet, 
Jr., the builder of the Niagara Suspension Bridge ; but when, 
early in June, Commodore Davis was ready to renew the at- 
tack on the fort with vigor, there was no enemy there to fight. 
A panic had seized the garrison, and they had fled. 

Davis now moved down the river, and in front of Memphis 
fought the Confederate fleet. The battle was watched with 
intense anxiety by the citizens. Sad havoc was made among 
the Confederate vessels. Finally, when only four of them were 
left afloat, and these were badly injured, their crews ran them 
ashore, abandoned them, and fled for life and liberty. 

The Confederate troops that occupied Memphis, perceiving 
that all was lost on the water, fled, and the city, without defend- 
ers, was surrendered by the civil authorities. Soon afterward 
General Lew Wallace, of Grant's victorious army, occupied it 
with National troops. Not a life had been lost on the National 
vessels in the battle before the town. 

Looking back to the Atlantic coast, we see Commodore Du- 
pont leaving Port Royal Sound late in February, with the Wa- 



308 STORY OF THE UNITED STATES NAVY. 

hash and fifty wav vessels (twenty of them armored), for service 
on the coast of Georgia and Florida. The Confederates in Fort 
Clinch, on Amelia Island, at Fernandina, and at other places, 
fled at his approach, and Dupont wrote to the Secretary of the 
Navy, saying, 

" We captured Port Royal, but Fort Clincli and Fernandina 
have been given to us." 

The whole coast was soon in possession of the Nationals. 
St. Augustine was surrendered, and a small naval force .went up 
the St. John's River and took possession of Jacksonville. Du- 
pont returned to Port Royal at near the close of March, leav- 
ing a small force at different points to hold what had been 
recovered. 

In the autumn of 1861 the government turned its attention 
to efforts to repossess Mobile, New Orleans, and Texas. The 
Department of the Gulf was created, and General B. F. Butler 
was placed in command of it. On receiving his instructions 
at AYashington, he said to Mr. Lincoln, 

"Good-bye, Mr. President; we shall take New Orleans, or 
you will never see me again." 

Secretary of War Stanton said to him, "The man wlio takes 
New Orleans is made a lieutenant-general." 

Butler left Hampton Roads on the 25th of February, with 
his wife, his staff, and fourteen hundred soldiers, in the fine 
steamship Mississippi, and debarked, after a passage through 
fearful storms, on Ship Island, off the coast of Mississippi, ex- 
actly a month afterward. There was an unfinished fort there. 

Ship Island was the place of rendezvous for the naval as well 
as the land-forces destined for New Orleans. The former were 
under the command of Commodore D. G. Farragut, who, in 
February, was placed in charge of the Western Gulf Squadron. 
He was joined by Commodore D. D. Porter, with a powerful 
mortar fleet of twenty-one schooners, each armed with a mor- 
tar weighing eight and a half tons, that would throw a 15-inch 



EXPEDITION AGAINST NEW ORLEANS. 309 

shell, weighing, when filled, two hundred and twelve pounds. 
Each vessel was also armed with two 32-pounder rifled cannons. 
The combined forces were ready for action at the middle of 
April. 

The Confederates had strongly armed two forts (Jackson 
and St. Philip), one on each side of the Mississippi, seventy-five 
miles from its five passes or mouths, and under their guns had 
moored a fleet of thirteen armored gun-boats, an iron-clad float- 
ing-battery, and the formidable ram Manassas (see page 298). 




D. I>. PORTER. 



They had other defences on the shores of the river between 
the forts, and between them and New Orleans. 

The fleets of Farragut and Porter were in the river on the 
l7th of April, and on the 18th fourteen of Porter's mortar-ves- 
sels, disguised — their hulls bedaubed with the Mississippi mud, 
and their spars and rigging covered by the boughs of trees — 
anchored under cover of a wood just below the forts. The 
river was full to the brim. On that morning a shot from Fort 
Jackson opened the conflict, and Porter began the bombard- 
ment, which continued several days, Farragut's vessels lying be- 



310 STORY OF THE U^'ITED STATES NAVY. 

low in reserve. Perceiving no prospect of reducing the forts, 
Farragut resolved to run by them with his fleet. 

There was a boom of logs and chains across the river below 
the forts. On a dark and tempestuous night it was destroyed 
by gun-boats. The Confederates sent down fire-rafts to burn 
the fleet, but failed in the attempt. 

On the evening of the 23d Farragut was ready for his peril- 
ous forward movement. It began at two o'clock in the morn- 
ing of the 24th. The flag-s^ip Hartford, with the equally 
large ships Richmond and Brooklyn — all wooden vessels — 
formed the first division ; and the Pensacola, Mississip'pi, Onei- 
da, Varuna, Katahdin, Kineo, Wissahickon, and Portsmouth, 
under Captain Theodorus Bailey, formed the second division. 
His flag-ship was the Cayuga. 

The first division kept near the right bank of the river to 
fight Fort Jackson, while the second division hugged the left 
bank to fight Fort St. Philip. To Captain Bell was assigned 
the duty of attacking the Confederate fleet above the forts. 
He was directed to keep in the channel with the Scioto, Wi- 
nona, Iroquois, Pensacola, Itaska, and Kennebec. 

The mortar- vessels covered the advance by a terrible storm 
of shells hurled upon Fort Jackson. The whole of Bailey's 
division passed the fort almost unharmed, but only three of 
Bell's passed by. Farragut, in the fore-chains of the Hartford, 
had watched the movements of Bailey and Bell with intense 
interest through his night-glass, and just as the waning moon 
went down, and he was a mile from Fort Jackson, that fortress 
opened a heavy fire upon the Hartford with great precision. 
Very soon she returned such a tremendous broadside of grape 
and canister that the garrison were driven from their barbette 
guns. 

Meanwhile the Manassas had attacked the Brooklyn with 
only slight effect, but she was exposed to a raking fire from 
Fort St. Philip, and was also assailed by a large Confederate 



FARPvAGUl S FLACi-STIIP IN" PETHL. 



311 



steamer. She gave the hitter a broadside that set it on fire 
and destroyed it. Soon afterward she opened all her guns 
upon Fort St. Philip and silenced it. At the same time Far- 
ragut was having a " rongh time," as he said. While battling 
with the forts, a huge fire -raft came suddenly upon him all 
ablaze, and in trying to avoid it, the Hartford ran aground, 
and she was on fire in a moment on her port side half-way up 
to the main-top. The flames were soon extinguished, and she 
was set afloat. All this time she was pouring shells into the 
forts, and occasionally gave a Confederate steamer a broadside. 
Before the fleet had fairly passed the forts, the Confederate 
gun-boats and rams took part in the conflict. The scene was 








THE "IIAETFOEU, 



awful and grand. The noise of twenty mortars and two hun- 
dred and sixty great guns afloat and ashore was terrific. The 
explosion of shells, sunk deep in the oozy earth around the 
forts, shook land and water like an earthquake. " Cotnbine," 
wrote one of General Butler's staff, "all that you have ever 
heard of thunder, and all that you have ever seen of lightning, 
and you bave, perhaps, a conception of the scene." And all 



312 STORY OF THE UNITED STATES NAVY. 

tills noise and destructive energy — blazing fire-rafts; floating 
volcanoes, belching out fire and smoke, with bolts of death ; 
the fierce rams pushing here and there with deadly force, and 
the thundering forts — were all crowded in the darkness within 
the space of a narrow river. 

As soon as the Cayuga passed Fort St. Philip, the Manassas, 
the huge floating-batter\^, and sixteen other vessels combined 
to destroy her. Captain Bailey could not withstand them all, 
and he steered his vessel so as to avoid the butting rams and 
to foil attempts to board the Cayuga, Meanwhile he was of- 
fensive as well as defensive, and he so skilfully managed his 
vessel and his guns, that he compelled three of the Confeder- 
ate gun-boats to surrender before any of his other vessels came 
to his assistance. The Cayuga^ which had been struck forty- 
two times, escaped up the river. 

The Varuna, Captain Boggs, that came to the rescue of the 
Cayuga, now became the chief object of the wrath of the foe. 
Boggs had run into a " nest of rebel steamers," he said. He 
delivered broadsides right and left. The first one that received 
the Varuna's fire was one filled with troops. Her boiler w-^s 
exploded by a shot, and she drifted ashore. Soon afterward 
the Varuna drove three other vessels ashore in flames, and all 
of them blew up. A powerful ram attacked her, and crushed 
in her side. Her broadside, delivered at the same time, drove 
the monster ashore in flames. Finding the Varuna sinking, 
Boggs ran her ashore, tied her fast, and poured heavy shot into 
another vessel that had attacked him. That vessel soon sur- 
rendered to the Oneida, wdiich had come to the rescue of the 
Varuna. 

So ended one of the fiercest naval fights on record. Within 
the space of an hour and a half after the National vessels had 
left their anchorage, the forts were passed, the struggle had oc- 
curred, and nearly the whole of the Confederate fleet was de- 
stroyed. The Manassas, diVQ^<\h\\\y wounded and on fire, floated 



THE NATIONAL FLEET AT NEW ORLEANS. 313 

down among- Porter's mortar-boats, wliicli were still below the 
forts. Her only gun soon went off, and she plunged, hissing, 
like a liuge monster, to the bottom of the river. This whole 
tragedy was performed while the theatre was shrouded in the 
darkness of night. 

In the mean time Butler had landed some troops below the 
forts, and through shallow bayous, piloted by Lieutenant Weit- 
zel, they gained the rear of Fort St. Philip. Some took a po- 
sition above Fort Jackson. Porter kept pounding the latter 
work terribly with his mortars, and finally the forts and the 
remainder of the Confederate fleet afloat surrendered. Porter 
turned over the forts to the army. Nearly one thousand per- 
sons were taken prisoners. 

Farragut pushed on toward New Orleans. The news of his 
approach created an intense panic. The Confederate military 
stationed there fled; citizens abandoned their homes and busi- 
ness, and hurried out of the town; specie to the amount of 
$4,000,000 was sent away by the bankers ; and frantic women 
were seen in the streets barelieaded, brandishing pistols and 
shouting, " Burn the city ! Never mind us ! Burn the city !" 
Cotton of the value of $15,000,000 piled upon the levees, and 
a dozen large ships, with as many magnificent steamboats, w^ere 
all set on fire and consumed in one huge conflagration. In 
the presence of this appalling scene, and while a fierce thunder- 
storm was raging, Farragut's squadron anchored in front of the 
city on the afternoon of April 25th, 1862. 

New Orleans was now utterly defenceless. Farragut sent 
Captain Bailey with a flag to demand the instant surrender of 
the city. The mayor, to whom the military commander had 
left the question of surrender or resistance, refused. Mean- 
while a force of marines had landed and hoisted the National 
flag over the government mint. Farragut intimated, in reply to 
the mayor, that he might be compelled to shell the city, and 
notified him to remove the women and children w'ithin forty- 

14* 



314 



STOKY OF THE UNITED STATES NAYY. 



eight hours. The mayor returned a most foolish and insulting- 
reply ; and while the commodore was considering the opposing 
claims of humanity and duty, he received intelligence of the 




». G. FAKR.VGUT. 



surrender of the forts below. He then concluded that he could 
afford to wait for the arrival of General Butler and his troops. 
They soon came, and New Orleans passed into the quiet and 
permanent possession of the National forces. 



THE "mERIUMAC" IN HAMPTON KOADS. 315 



CHAPTER XXII. 

A STIRRING and novel event occurred in Hampton Roads 
early in March, 1862. The Confederates had raised the scut- 
tled Merriniac (see page 293) and converted her into a formi- 
dable iron-clad " ram," which they named Virginia. She was 
placed in command of Franklin Buchanan, late of the United 
States Navy, and was completely equipped at the Norfolk Navy- 
yard. At that time the sailing-frigate Congress and sloop-of- 
war Ciimherland were lying near Newport News, at the mouth 
of the James River, while the flag-ship of the squadron {Roa- 
noke) in the Roads and the steam-frigate Minnesota were lying 
at Fortress Monroe, several miles distant. 

On Saturday, the 8th, the Merriniac steamed down the Eliz- 
abeth River and headed for the Cumherland^ Captain Morris, 
who opened a brisk but harmless fire upon the monster. The 
Merrimac ran her iron beak into the starboard bow of the 
Cumberland. It was a death-blow ; but the guns of the Cmn- 
herland were fought until the water covered her decks, and she 
went down heroically, with her colors flying at the peak. The 
sick and wounded, who could not be removed, to the number 
of one hundred, went down with the sinking vessel in fifty-four 
feet of water. 

The Congress was next assailed by the Merrimac and gun- 
boats that accompanied her, and, after stout resistance, w^as 
surrendered to the Confederates. The Merrimac afterward set 
her on fire with hot shot. At midnight her magazine, contain- 
ing five tons of gunpowder, exploded, tearing her into pieces. 
Only one -half of her crew of four hundred and thirt3'-four 



316 



STORY OF THE UNITED STATES XAVY. 



men answered to tlieir names at roll-call at Newport-Newce the 
next morning. 

The Minnesota had hastened to the assistance of the vessels 
at Newport-Newce, but ran agTonnd before she arrived at the 
scene of conflict. Tliere she was attacked by the Merrimac 
and two gun-boats, but fought them so gallantly that at dusk 
her assailants, much crippled, withdrew. 

This destructive raid caused great consternation among the 
loyal people. It was expected the Merrimac would destroy 
the grounded Minnesota, and other vessels in the Roads, escape 
to sea, and spread havoc in Northern harbors. All eyes on the 
northern shores of Hampton Roads were sleepless that night. 
There seemed no available human help. 

At a little past midnight a mysterious thing came in from 
the sea, lighted on its w^ay by the 
burning Congress. It seemed like a 
supernatural apparition. The won- 
dering sentinels saw nothing but an 
apparent float moved by steam, with 
a huge cylinder upon it. The Con- 
federates called it a "cheese -box 
afloat." It was the famons Moni- 
tor, constructed under the direction 
of Captain John Ericsson, with its 
turret invented by Theodore Tim- 
bey, and commanded by Lieutenant 
(afterward Rear-admiral) John L. Worden. She had made a 
perilous voyage in tow of the Seth Low from the harbor of 
New York, and had arrived just in time to perform the needed 
work of a wonderful savior. 

The Monitor was bnilt almost wholly of three-inch iron, point- 
ed at both ends like a whale-boat, her deck only a few inches 
above the w^ater. It was one hundred and twenty-four feet in 
length, thirty-four in width, and six in depth, with a flat bot- 




THEODOr.E E. TI.MliEY. 



IN HAMPTON KOADS. 317 

tom. Over tins hull was another that extended over the lower 
one three feet all around, excepting at the ends, where the pro- 
jection was twenty-five feet, for the protection of the anchor, 
propeller, and rudder. On her deck was a revolving turret, 
made of eight thicknesses of one -inch wrought -iron plates, 
round, twenty feet in diameter, and ten feet high. The smoke- 
stack was telescopic in construction, so as to be lowered in bat- 
tle. Within this revolving turret or citadel (which was easily 
turned by a contrivance) were two heavy Dahlgren cannons. 
By turning the turret these "bull-dogs" might look straight 
into the face of an attacking enemy, wherever he might be, 
without changing the position of the vessel. The Monitor was 
propelled by a powerful steam-engine. 

On his arrival at two o'clock in the morning of March 9th, 
1862, Lieutenant Worden reported to Flag-officer Van Brunt, 
and the strange vessel was moored along-side the Minnesota. 
The Monitor seemed like a pygmy by a giant in the shadow 
of the huge frigate ; but she was an engine charged with most 
destructive enei'gy. 

That Sabbath morning dawned brightly. Before sunrise the 
dreaded Merrimac was seen coming down from Norfolk, with 
attendants, to renew her savage work on the Minnesota. As 
she approached, the latter opened her stern guns on the as- 
sailant, when the Monitor, to the astonishment of friend and 
foe, ran out and placed herself along- side the giant warrior 
— a little David defying a lofty Goliath. The faith of her 
commander in her strength and invulnerability was amply 
justified. 

The turret of the Monitor began to move, and from her guns 
were hurled ponderous shots in quick succession. The Merri- 
mac responded with two-hundred-pound shots moving at the 
rate of two thousand feet in a second. These, with solid 
round shots and conical bolts, glanced from the deck and cita- 
del of the Monitor like pebbles, scarcely leaving a mark be- 



318 STORY OF THE UNITED STATES NAVY. 

hind. Neither of these mailed gladiators was much bruised in 
this terrible encounter. 

The Merrimac now left her invuhierable and more affile an- 

o 

tagonist, and fell upon the Minnesota. The latter was severely 
wounded. One of her assailaut's terrible shells went crashing 
through the Minnesota to amidships, setting her on fire. Full 
fifty round shot struck her, while her own broadsides had little 
effect upon her armored antagonist. Very soon the little Mon- 
itor bore down to her assistance, ran in between the comba- 
tants, and compelled the Merrimac to change her position. In 
doing so she ran aground, when the Minnesota brought her 
guns to bear upon her. She soon floated, and took to her heels 
toward Norfolk, chased by the fiery Monitor. The fugitive 
suddenly turned upon her pursuer, and sought to sink her by 
running into her with the huge iron beak, but the Merrimac 
was now more injured than her antagonist, and after a short 
and sharp combat they both withdrew. 

The Monitor now went toward Fortress Monroe, the Merri- 
mac to Norfolk. The rescued Minnesota was lightened and 
put afloat, and the country rung with the praises of Ericsson, 
the inventor, and Worden, the warrior, whose united energies 
had achieved this momentous victory. The Merrimac was so 
much injured, and her commander was so impressed with pro- 
found respect for the Monitor, that he did not again invite his 
little antagonist to combat. 

The gallant Worden, who had boldly ventured upon the 
stormy Atlantic in an untried vessel of strange fashion, and 
fought with success the most powerful ship then in the Con- 
federate service, was stunned and injured by a heavy shot 
striking the '' peep-hole " out of which he was looking. The 
concussion sent some shivered cement violently into his face, 
and the hurt put his life in danger for awhile. He was regard- 
ed as the savior of his country from great danger at that time, 
and Congress gave him the thanks of the nation. 



vu. .''-r .E^^i^iiiili'-' ;,(( 







i, , '....,h^,. M^-c^ mmm __.r±!m 



NATIONAL VESSELS AT VICKSBURG. 321 

When, in May following, troops under General Wool were 
marching on Norfolk, the Confederate soldiers there fled, set- 
ting the Merrimac and other vessels, as well as the navy-yard, 
on fire. The iron-clad monster was destroyed by the explosion 
of her magazine, and so ended her career. The James River 
was now opened to the National gun-boats as far as City Point. 
The Monitor was afterward lost in a storm off Cape Ilatteras. 

When New Orleans was in the power of the Nationals, Far- 
ragnt sent a portion of his fleet to reduce Confederate ports 
on the Mississippi. Baton Rouge, the capital of Louisiana, was 
captured on the 7th of May, when Farragut united his forces, 
and a larger portion of them under the command of S. P. Lee, 
moved on until they reached Vicksburg, without opposition. 
There were formidable batteries there, manned by the Confed- 
erate troops that fled from New Orleans. 

Farragut, with the remainder of his vessels, a portion of Por- 
ter's mortar fleet, and some transports with troops, arrived be- 
fore Vicksburg on the 26th of June, and that night opened a 
heavy fire on the batteries there. They were too high to be 
much injured by the guns of the squadron ; and before daylight 
on the morning of the 28th Farragut, with the Hartford and 
six other vessels, ran by these batteries, leaving Porter, with his 
mortar-boats and the transports, below. He met the gun and 
mortar flotilla under Davis (see page 307) that had come down 
the river from Memphis. An attempt by the troops and 
twelve hundred negroes to cut a canal across the peninsula op- 
posite Vicksburg, through which the transports might pass, 
was a failure, and in the course of a few days the siege of that 
city was abandoned. 

A powerful " ram " was then lying in the Yazoo River, 
above Vicksburg, named Arkansas. Farragut sent three gun- 
boats to capture her. They went cautiously up the Yazoo six 
miles, and found her. A desperate combat ensued, chiefly be- 
tween the armored Carondelet, Captain Walke, and the Arkan- 



322 STORY OF THE UNITED STATES NAVY. 

sas. The former was badly injured. Her antao-oiiist made 
her way into the Mississippi, and sought shelter under the guns 
of the batteries at Vicksburg. Farragut now ran past the 
Vicksburg fortifications, and returned to New Orleans with his 
fleet on the 28th of July. 

The monster " ram " Arkansas had a mission. It was to 
sweep every National vessel from the Mississippi, and " drive 
the Yankees from New Orleans." For that purpose she went 
down the river. The gun-boats Essex, Captain W. D. Porter, 
Cayuga, and Sumter went up the stream to meet her. They 
found her five miles above Baton Rouge, and an engagement 
was immediately begun. Owing to defects in her engines, the 
Arkansas became unmanageable, when she was run ashore and 
set on fire by her commander. The explosion of her maga- 
zine blew her into fragments. 

Some attempts had been made to "repossess" important 
places in Texas, especially the city of Galveston. At the mid- 
dle of May (1862), Henry Eagle, commander of a small block- 
ading squadron in front of Galveston, summoned the town to 
surrender, but the demand was refused ; and so matters re- 
mained until October, when the city was formally given up to 
Commander Renshaw by the civil authorities. 

We have noticed the commissioning of privateers by Jeffer- 
son Davis in the spring of 1861, and the fate of two of them 
(see page 294). Before the close of July more than twenty 
of these depredators were afloat, the most active and formida- 
ble of which were the Nashville and Sumter. The former was 
finally destroyed by the Montauk, commanded by Captain 
Worden, in the Ogeechee River. The career of the Sumter 
was brief, but more destructive. In June, 1861, she ran the 
blockade at the mouth of the Mississippi River, and was chased 
some distance by the Brooklyn. She ran among the West In- 
dia Islands, captured many merchant-vessels, and became the 
terror of the x\merican mercantile marine. 



ENGLISH-CONFEDERATE CKUISEKS. o23 

The British Government favored the confederated insurgents 
from the beginning, and the Sumter was everywhere welcomed 
in British ports, and allowed every facility for carrying on her 
destructive business. National vessels were sent out in pursuit 
of her, and at the close of 1861 she was compelled to seek 
shelter in the British port of Gibraltar, where, early in 1862, 
she was sold. 

The Confederates, encouraged by British favors, employed a 
British ship -builder (Mr. Laird, a member of Parliament) to 




TUE ''SUjMTEK. 



construct vessels for them for privateering purposes. The 
Oi'eto was sent to sea in disguise, sailed for the British port of 
Nassau, and early in September appeared off the harbor of 
Mobile flying British colors. She ran into Mobile harbor, 
eluding the blockade fleet, and escaped late in December, when 
she bore the name of Florida. She hovered most of the time 
on the American coast, but was closely watched by National 
vessels. She managed to elude them. Finally she ran into 
the Brazilian port of Bahia, or San Salvador, after capturing a 
barque, and there she was captured by the Wachusetts, Cap- 
tain Collins. This capture was a violation of neutrality, and 
produced considerable excitement. The captain and prize soon 



324 



STOEY OF THE UNITED STATES NAVY. 



afterward appeared in Hampton Roads, and not long after lier 
arrival tlie Florida was snnk near Newport-Newce. Her ca- 
reer had been very destructive to property of the loyal Amer- 
icans. 




T]IE " AL.VU.VM V. 



The most famous of the Eng-lish-American cruisers during 
the Civil War was the Alabama, Captain Raphael Semmes. She 
was built by Laird near Liverpool, was armed, provisioned, and 
chiefly manned in a British port, and sailed under British col- 
ors. She was watched,. while in port, by the National ship 
Tuscarora ; but, favored by the British Government in keeping 
the latter vessel back until the Alabama had got well to sea, 
she was allowed to go on her destructive errand without mol- 
estation. For a year and a half afterward, while carefully 
avoiding contact with armed vessels of the United States, the 
Alabama illuminated the sea with blazing American merchant- 
men which she had captured and set on fire. During the last 
ninety days of 1862 she captured and destroyed twenty-eight 
helpless vessels. 

After a prosperous voyage in the South Atlantic and Indian 
oceans, during which she captured sixty-seven vessels and de- 
stroyed a greater portion of them, the Alabama took shelter in 
the French harbor of Cherbourg, in early summer, 1864. There 




mm I 



327 

the United States steamship Kearsarge^ Captain J. A. Winslow, 
found her at near the middle of June. On Sunday, the 19tli, 
tlie Alabama, fully prepared, went out to fight the Kearsarge. 
She was followed by a yacht belonging to one of the English 
gentry, to give aid to Semmes if he should be worsted in the 
tight, by snatching him and his officers from the grasp of the 
victor, and conveying them in safety to England. 

Passing beyond the neutral waters of the port, the two ves- 
sels had a combat at long range for an hour, both moving in 
a circle. The Alabama was badly crippled, and her flag went 
down, whether shot away or pulled down in token of surrender, 
Winslow could not tell. Then a white flag was displayed over 
her stern, which was respected, and the Kearsarge ceased firing. 
Two minutes later the Alabama opened two guns upon her 
adversary, and attempted to run into neutral waters not more 
than three miles distant. This treachery was punished by a 
heavy fire from the Kearsarge, which put the Alabama in a 
sinking condition, and made her a pleader for mercy. 

When the Alabama went down Winslow humanely made ef- 
forts to save her ingulfed crew, and rescued sixty-five of them. 
The English yacht picked up Semmes and his officers and a 
few men, and bore tliem to England, out of harm's way, where 
they were feasted and otherwise honored by the ruling class. 
For the complicity of the British Government in the ravages 
of this English-Confederate pirate-ship, a tribunal of arbitration, 
chosen by the United States and Great Britain jointly, adjudged 
that the latter should pay to the former, for damages, the sum 
oi ffteen million Jive hundred thousand dollars ') gold, and it 
was done. 

The Shenandoah was another active English -Confederate 
sea-rover that sailed from England. She went around Cape 
Horn, crossed the Pacific Ocean, and sailed up the eastern coast' 
of Asia to Behring Strait, to spread havoc among the New 
England whaling -ships engaged in fishing in those waters. 



328 STORY OF THE UNITED STATES XAVY. 

These vessels held a sort of convention in that liigli latitude 
(June 28th, 1865), when the Shenandoah^ disguised as a mer- 
chantman and flying the' American flag, ran in among the ships 
unsuspected. Then she revealed her true character, captured 
ten of them, placed eight of them in a group before midnight, 
and set them on Are, lighting up the ice-floes of the Polar Sea 
by th^ incendiary flames. This was the last act of hostility in 
the American Civil War in 1861-65. 

Late in 1862, Admiral D. D. Porter was with a gun-boat and 
mortar fleet above Vicksburg, and co-operated with General 
W. T. Sherman and a large body of land troops in attempts to 
capture Vicksburg by attacking it in the rear. They passed 
up the Yazoo River for the purpose, but failed. When General 
McClernand, Sherman's superior in rank, arrived at the begin- 
ning of January, 1863, a land and naval expedition went up 
the Arkansas River to Arkansas Post, and captured Fort Hind- 
man. Soon afterward General Grant arrived, and he and Por- 
ter arranged a plan for reducing A^icksburg, and speedily at- 
tempted to put it into operation. 

For many weeks in the winter and spring of 1863, a most 
wonderful amphibious w^arfare was carried on among the net- 
work of bayous in the rear of Vicksburg. Gun-boats and mor- 
tar-boats, and land troops in strong force, were engaged in it ; 
and the story, in detail, of the naval operations there appears 
like a tale of wildest romance. Nothing like it ever before 
appeared in the history of naval warfare. The Confederates 
everywhere met the Nationals, force with force, and contend- 
ed bravely for the mastery. Grant, perceiving these efforts 
to be futile, finally withdrew^ the army and navy from the 
bayous. 

It was known that the Confederate troops at Vicksburg and 
Port Hudson below were supplied with necessaries by trans- 
ports on the lower Mississippi. To destroy these, the "ram" 
Queen of the Wefit was sent down the river. As she passed 



POUTER ALARMS THE CONFEDERATES AT VICKSBURG. 329 

the batteries at Yicksburg slie destroyed a steamer lying under 
protection of their guns, and, pushing on, destroyed three other 
vessels at Natchez. After running up the Red River a few 
miles, she returned and repassed the batteries at Vicksburg. 
She made another raid a few days later, but through the treach- 
ery of a pilot she was lost on the Red River. 

On the night of February 13th (1863), the powerful iron- 
clad steamer Indianola floated unobserved past the batteries at 
Vicksburg until she reached the lower ones, which opened upon 
her. Very little hurt, she passed on with the expectation of 
sweeping Confederate craft from the river. Before the close 
of the month she was attacked by a Confederate " ram," and 
captured. While the Confederates were fitting her for service, 





rORTEE S GUN-BOAT K.V.M. 



Porter one night sent down an old hulk fashioned like an im- 
mense " ram," with a smoke-stack ma<lc of pork barrels. On 
her side were painted, in large letters, "Deluded people, cave 
in." There was not a man on board of her. As she passed 

15 



330 



STORY OF THE UNITED STATES NAVY. 



Vicksburg the batteries opened a furious fire upon her, but she 
went sullenly on. The Confederates below, alarmed, blew the 
Indlanola into fragments with gunpowder, and her cannons 
went to the bottom of tlie river 




THE INDIANOI.A 



A more important measure was now undertaken. Grant 
sent his troops down the western side of the Mississippi to 
cross below Vicksburg, and operate against the town from the 
line of the Big Black River. To assist in the transportation 
of troops across the river below, Porter prepared to run by 
Vicksburg with gun-boats, transports, and barges. The enter- 
prise was undertaken on the night of April 1 6th. The vessels 
were laden with supplies, and shielded from the missiles from 
the batteries by bales of hay and cotton, heavy timbers, and 
iron chains. The o-un-boats went down in the dark, in sino-le 
file, to engage the batteries. The latter were silent until the 
fleet was abreast the city and the works, when the heights sud- 
denly seemed all ablaze with lightning, and the air resonant 
with thunder. The fire of the batteries was returned with 
spirit. Under cover of the smoke, the transports followed. 
One of them was set on fire and burnt to the water's edge. 
The undertaking was successful, and the passage of the re- 
mainder of the fleet was almost equally so. 

Late in 1862 General Banks was in command of the Depart- 
ment of the Gulf. At the request of Renshaw (see page 322), 
then holding Galveston, he sent a land-force to make its pos- 



AMD "hatteras." 331 

session more secure. General Magruder, the Confederate com- 
mander in that region, armed some steamboats in neigliboring 
rivers, gathered a considerable land-force, and on New-year's 
night, 1863, by a combined attack, took possession of the town 
and dispersed Renshaw's squadron after a desperate combat. 
The victory was almost a barren one, for Farragiit.soon after- 
ward sent a competent squadron to seal up the port of Gal- 
veston. 

Just as the blockade was re-established, a strange sail, under 
British colors, was seen in the distance, and the gun-boat Hat- 
teras, Lieutenant Blake, was sent to make her acquaintance. 
The stranger seemed coy, and, on being hailed, her commander 
said she was the British ship Vixen. Very soon she revealed 
her true character. She was the English-Confederate cruiser 
Alabama. A very sharp combat ensued, in which the Alabama 
was much injured; but it ended in the destruction of the Ifat- 
teras. She was sunk. There was great difference in the pow- 
er of the two vessels. The heaviest guns carried by the Hat- 
teras were 32-pounders; the Alabama carried one 150-pounder 
and one 68-pounder. With the crew of the Hatteras, the Ala- 
bama went into the friendly English port of Kingston, Jamaica, 
for repairs. 

Ten days after this engagement, two National gun - boats, 
blockading Sabine Pass, were driven out to sea by two armed 
Confederate steamers that came down the Sabine River. They 
were captured, with prisoners and a large amount of stores on 
board. 

Admiral Farragut, who had gone out to sea after returning 
to New Orleans, hearing of the destruction of National vessels 
on the Mississippi, determined to run by the Confederate bat- 
teries on the high bluff at Port Hudson, and recover the control 
of the river from that point to Vicksburg. He gathered his 
fleet a little below Port Hudson in March, and General Banks 
sent from New Orleans about twelve thousand men to divert 



332 STORY OF THE UNITED STATES NAVY. 

the attention of tlie Confederate garrison from the naval op- 
erations, if necessary. 

On a dark night (March 13th, 1863) Farragnt, in the Hart- 
ford, with a gun-boat lashed to her side, proceeded on the per- 
ilous voyage. The other larger vessels followed, with gun-boats 
attached. "These movements were watched by the vigilant Con- 
federates, and when the fleet came within range of the batteries 
on the bluff, they opened upon the Nationals a tremendous 
fire, with grape, canister, and shrapnel shot, and the bullets of 
sharp-shooters. The mortar-boats responded, but the guns of 
the fleet were less effective against the high batteries. After a 
tierce contest for an hour and a half the firing ceased, but only 
the Hartford and her attached gun-boat had passed. The Mis- 
sissippi, Captain Melancthon Smith, had run aground and been 
set on fire by her commander. As she lightened she floated 
down the river with her twenty-one heavy guns. When the fire 
reached her magazine, she was blown into fragments by its ex- 
plosion. The other vessels retired, while Farragnt, with his two 
war-vessels, remained above Port Hudson. 

Late in April (1863) General Grant, ready to move forward 
to the Big Black River, directed Poiter to attack the batteries 
at Grand Gulf. This was done on the morning of the 29th. 
The lower batteries were silenced, but the upper ones could not 
be reached. The combat soon ceased, but was renewed at a 
little before sunset, when, under cover of a heavy fire, the trans- 
ports and the war-fleet ran by the batteries, as they had done 
at Yicksburg. Not long afterward the Confederates abandoned 
Grand Gulf, and Porter went up to Yicksburg to assist Grant 
in the siege of that post, where the army, after a series of vic- 
tories, had gained the rear of the city. 

In that siege Porter's mortar-boats were at work forty days 
without intermission, and during the time fired seven thousand 
mortar-shells, while his gun-boats fired four thousand five hun- 
dred shells. His gun -boats had patrolled the river to keep 



SIEGE OF PORT HUDSOX. 333 

its banks clear of guerillas, and to prevent supplies reaching 
Vicksburg, in which they were successful. During the whole 
siege he lost only one vessel, and only six or seven men in the 
eno'affement. 

A daily journal of events of the siege was printed on the ad- 
rah-al's flag-ship, on one side of dull yellow paper, in two col- 
umns, "terms $2000 per annum in Confederate notes, or equal 
weight in cord-wood." It informed the public that " no spe- 
cial reporter belonged to the establishment," and that therefore 
" nothing but the truth might be expected." 

Late in May Farragut assisted Banks in an attack on Port 
Hudson. With the Hartford, Albatross, and one or two other 
gun-boats above Port Hudson, and the Monongahela, Richmond, 
Essex, and Genesee, with mortar-boats below, he poured a con- 
tinuous stream of shells upon the garrison at the close of May. 
After a severe battle on land and water,the Nationals rested. 

From that time Banks's cannons and Farragut's great guns 
pounded the Confederate works, and on the 9th of July (1863) 
they were surrendered, with more than six thousand troops. 
This conquest gave the final blow to Confederate control on 
the Mississippi River. It was now^ open to the passage of ves- 
sels on its bosom, unmolested, from St. Louis to New Orleans, 
for Vicksburg had been surrendered to Grant a few days before. 



► 34 STOIIY OF THE UNITED STATES NAVY. 



CHAPTER XXIII. 

While these events were occurring on the Western rivers, 
the blockading squadrons were busy on the sea-coasts, co-oper- 
ating with the armies tliere, and watching and capturing Brit- 
ish blockade-runners. 

Late in February, 1863, the Confederate steamer Nasliville, 
driven into port, was lying under the protection of the guns of 
Fort M'Allister, a little way up the Ogeechee River. She had 
been keenly watched for some time by Captain Worden, with 
the monitor Montauk and other vessels. The Montauk could 
not ascend the Ogeechee, and Worden, with his long-range 
guns, sent shells (February 27th) that set her on fire, and she 
was blown into fragments by the explosion of her magazine. 
An effort to capture the fort with mortar-boats at that time 
failed. 

About a month earlier a furious battle occurred just outside 
of Charleston harbor. The Confederates were informed that 
the heavier vessels of the blockading squadron were absent. 
The insurgents had two vessels — the Palmetto State and Chico- 
ra — fitted up as " rams," and these were sent out to attack the 
weaker forces of the squadron. They stole softly over the bar 
in a shrouding fog before dawn, at near the close of January 
(1863). The Mercedita lay just outside, and was struck with 
full force amidships by the beak of the Palmetto State, her an- 
tagonist at the same time firing a shell that went crashing 
through her machinery. She was so disabled that she could 
neither fight nor fly. 

The victor next attacked the Keystone State, sending a shell 



ATTACK OX THE BlAXJlvADING FLEET. 



335 



into lier forcliold and setting- it on fire. As soon as the flames 
were extinguislied, her commander (Captain Le Roy) attempted 







to run down liis antagonist, wlien a Imge shot from her wont 
through both steam-chests oi the Keystone State and utterly 



336 STORY OF THE UNITED STATES NAVY. 

disabled lier. Day now dawned, and the rest of the block- 
ading squadron, wide awake, dashed into the fight, when the 
assailants retreated toward Charleston, where Beauregard was 
then in command. He and Ingraham, the commander of the 
Confederate naval forces, issued a joint proclamation decep- 
tively declaring that the blockade of Charleston was raised, 
when not a single vessel had really been removed — only tem- 
porarily disabled — and the port was as effectually closed as 
ever. 

It was now determined to attempt the capture of Charleston. 
Admiral Dupont, with a naval force of fourteen vessels, anchor- 
ed off Charleston harbor on the 5th of x^pril. The "monitor 
squadron" moved over the bar the next morning, leaving the 
gun-boats outside. The flag-ship was the New Ironsides. 

The works around Charleston harbor to be reduced were 
numerous and formidable. The approach to them was peril- 
ous. In one channel heavy piles were driven, with an opening 
to invite a vessel in, when she would be blown out of the water 
by a submerged mine of three thousand pounds of gunpowder. 
The main ship channel was obstructed by chains and a tangled 
net-work of cables held by a huge hawser, and bnoyed up by 
empty barrels. Among this net-woi'k were suspended torpe- 
does, and the channels were strewn with tliem. 

Up this channel Dupont's fleet moved to attack Fort Sumter. 
The Confederate batteries were ominously silent. The Wee- 
hawken^ Captain Rodgers, led, followed by a train of tli€ strange 
monsters of the deep — the monitors. The Weehaivke?i soon 
became entangled in the horrid net-work, when the barbette 
guns of Fort Sumter sent down plunging shots and shells upon 
her. The WeehawTcen withdrew, followed by the other vessels, 
and in another channel they were confronted by the piles just 
mentioned. Fortunately Rodgers, the commander of the Wee- 
haivken^ was not lured into the opening, or his vessel would 
have been shattered into atoms by the monster torpedo. 



DESPERATE BATTLE NEAR FORT SUMTER. 337 

Meanwliile, Dupont had brought up the other monitors into 
position for a combined attack upon Sumter. The Keokuk^ 
Lieutenant-commander Rhind, ran up to within five hundred 
yards of the fort and hurled immense projectiles upon it. The 
Keokuk was soon so riddled by shots and shells from Sumter 
that she was compelled to withdraw, in a sinking condition. 
On the monitors was poured a tremendous storm of like pro- 
jectiles, to which they made quick responses. At the same 
time Forts Moultrie, Wagner (on Morris Island), and others 
within range, having an aggregate of three hundred cannons, 
hurled heavy shot and shell upon the squadron, then within 
the focus of their concentrated fire, at a distance of only from 
five to eight hundred yards. These missiles were thrown at the 
rate of one hundred and sixty a minute. Some of them made 
severe wounds, but a greater portion of them glanced from 
the monitors like pistol-shot. The weaker Keokuk suffered 
most, having been hit ninety times. Nineteen holes were made 
in her hull, and her two turrets were riddled. She sunk at 
eight o'clock in the evening. 

The combat was terrific, and all in the fleet agreed that it 
ought not to be renewed ; and yet it was fully expected that 
another attack would be made in the morning. " Such a fire," 
wrote a participant, " or anything like it, was never seen be- 
fore. * * * There was something almost pathetic in the specta- 
cle of those little floating circular towers, exposed to the crush- 
ing weight of these tons of metal, hurled against them with the 
terrific force of modern projectiles, and with such charges of 
powder as were never before dreamed of in artillery firing." 
The fight did not last more than forty minutes, during which 
time it w^as estimated the Confederates fired three thousand 
five hundred shots. 

Dupont, seeing the Keokuk destroyed, his flag-ship in peril, 
and his other vessels much injured, while Sumter appeared very 
little harmed, perceived the folly of renewing the attack. He 

15* 



338 STORY OF THE UNITED STATES NAVY. 

dared to act wisely, and retired. The attack on Sumter was a 
failure, but it did not involve much disaster. 

For some time after this attack there was comparative quiet 
along the coasts of Carolina and Georgia. At length a rumor 
reached Dupont that the Confederates had a powerful ram 
named Atlanta in the waters connected with the Savannah 
River. She was under the command of Captain Webb, late 
of the United States Navy. Dupont sent the Weehawken and 
Nahant to look after her. The Confederates believed she was 
a match for any two monitors afloat, and acted accordingly. 

The Atlanta was in the Wilmington River. It was the pleas- 
ant month of June. She went down to meet the two monitors, 
accompanied by gun-boats crowded with citizens of Savannah, 
many of them women, who went to see the fight and enjoy the 
victory. When her intended victims appeared in sight, Webb 
assured his " audience " that the monitors would be " in tow of 
the Atlanta before breakfast." As she pushed swiftly toward 
the Weehawken Captain Rodgers sent a solid shot that carried 
away the top of the Atlanta's pilot-house and sent her aground. 
Fifteen minutes afterward she was a prisoner to the Weehaivken. 
" Providence, for some good reason," said the astonished Webb 
pathetically to his crew, " has interfered with our plans." These 
were to sweep the blockading squadrons from the ocean, open 
the ports of Charleston and Wilmington, and ravage Northern 
harbors and sea-port towns. The Atlanta was taken to Phila- 
delphia, where she was exhibited as a "show," the proceeds of 
which were given to the " Volunteer Refreshment Saloon " for 
soldiers in that city. 

General Q. A. Gilln^ore took command of the Department of 
the South on the 1st of June, 1863. Early in July he took a 
strong position on Morris Island, on which was the Confeder- 
ate Fort Wagner. His object was to capture that fort, reduce 
Sumter, and closely besiege Charleston. To do this he would 
have the powerful assistance of a fleet commanded by Admiral 



FORT su:mter in ruins. 



389 



Dalilgien. In the first attack on Wagner (July lltli) Gillniore 
was repulsed. Better prepared on the 17th of August, on that 
morning the guns of his twelve batteries on Morris Island and 
all of the heavy cannons of Dahlgren's fleet were opened upon 
Wagner, Sumter, and Battery Gregg. 

The chief object of attack was Fort Sumter, two miles from 
Gillmore's batteries, and upon it he brought his breach ing-guns 
to bear. At the same time the monitors Passaic and Patapsco 
assailed it with their heavy guns; and on the 24th Gilmore 
wrote to General Halleck : '' Fort Sumter is to-day a shapeless 
mass of ruins." The guns of the army and navy were now 




THE NEW IROMSIDES. 



turned upon Fort Wagner, the New Ironsides beginning tlie 
attack by a broadside of eight guns on its sea face. For forty- 
eight hours a cannonade and bombardment was kept up, when 
the Confederates were driven out of Fort Wagner and Battery 
Gregg. 

Believing the channels were strewn with torpedoes, Dahlgren 
would not risk his vessels by running by Sumter and up to 



340 STOKY OF THE UNITED STATES NAVY. 

Charleston, as Gillmore expected liim to do ; but on the night 
of the 8th thirty row-boats filled with armed men went from 
the fleet to attempt to take possession of the smitten fort. 
Some of the men scaled the ruined fortress with the belief that 
the garrison was asleep. They were wide awake, and suddenly 
the invaders were assailed by musket -balls, hand-grenades, the 
fire of neighboring batteries, and a gun-boat lying ne?a'. Two 
hundred of the assailants were killed, wounded, or captured, 
with five boats and three colors. After that there was no more 
meddling with the ruined but yet powerful fort that guarded 
the approach to Charleston. 

Let us now return to the great valley of the Mississippi, and 
take note of operations there. 

Early in the spring of 1864, General Banks, commanding the 
Department of the Gulf, attempted to throw an army into Tex- 
as by way of the Red River and Shreveport. He moved troops 
to Alexandria, on the Red River, in March, where he was joined, 
at about the middle of that month, by Admiral Porter, with 
fifteen powerful gun-boats and three other light steamboats, ac- 
companied by transports bearing troops from Sherman's army. 

There were rapids in the Red River at Alexandria, up which 
only the lighter vessels of the fleet could pass. The heavier 
iron-clads were left below them. Of the gun-boats that passed 
the rapids, only the lighter ones could go higher than Grand 
Ecore. These, with smaller transports and a land-force under 
General T. Kilby Smith, went as far as Springfield, when the 
expedition was abandoned, and all the troops and vessels began 
a retreat to Alexandria. To the river portion of the expedi- 
tion it was a perilous movement. The water on the river was 
falling, and the vessels were frequently aground. Confederate 
sharp-shooters, and dismounted cavalry with cannons, made 
many sharp attacks upon the worried flotilla. 

On the evening of April 12th a heavy transport, lying aground 
at Pleasant Hill Landing, was assailed by about two thousand 



OPERATIONS ON THE RED RIVER. 341 

Confederates, under General Thomas Green, who demanded the 
surrender of all the vessels and troops. The monitor Osage, 
armed with two Rodman guns, returned the attack, and blew 
off the head of the Confederate commander. The vessels and 
troops sustained the assault most gallantly. The Lexington 
gave the Confederates a raking fire of canister-shot that strew- 
ed the banks with their slain and wounded for a mile. So ter- 
rible was the lesson given by the Nationals in this engagement 
that a force of five thousand Confederates, which were hasten- 
ing to intercept the flotilla at a point below, turned back. 

Most of Porter's larger vessels were aground on the bar at 
Grand Ecore, and the water was still falling. Some of them 
drew a foot more water than was in the river there. The mo- 
mentous question now arose : 

" If the retreat must be continued to the Mississippi River, 
how are the vessels to be taken over the bar at Alexandria?" 

Lieutenant - colonel Joseph Bailey, acting chief -engineer of 
the Ninth Army Corps, proposed a practical solution of the 
difficulty by a method which he had learned in the business of 
lumbering on the wild streams of Wisconsin. He proposed to 
dam the river at the rapids, gather the vessels in the deepened 
waters above, then open a prepared sluice-way, and allow them 
to go down the swift-running stream like logs in smaller wa- 
ter-courses, upon the temporary deep current so formed. The 
army officers approved it, but Porter had no faith in the proposed 
measure. He rejected Bailey's offer to assist in passing the 
Eastport, a large vessel, over the shoals on her way down, by 
means of Aving dams, for " no counsel of army officers," said 
Banks in his report, " was regarded in nautical affairs." The 
Eastport gTounded several times, and finally, becoming fast in 
a bed of logs, Porter ordered her to be blown up. Bailey 
could have saved her. 

When the flotilla reached Alexandria, the water in the river 
was so low that not a vessel could pass down the rapids. The 



342 STORY OF THE UNITED STATES NAVY. 

peril was great, for an attack by the Confederates might result 
in the capture of the vessels. Porter declared that, " if nature 
does not change her laws, there will, no doubt, be a rise of wa- 
ter." But nature refused to accommodate him. He did not 
believe in damming the river except by words. Banks did, and 
he ordered Lieutenant-colonel Bailey to proceed in the work, 
and gave him the use of nearly the whole army in the task. 
In the space of five days a dam, eight hundred feet in length, 
constructed of stone and timber, and sunken coal -boats, was 
completed. The water was raised seven feet in the rapids, and 
by the method alhided to the whole fleet passed down the 
falls in safety on the 12th. Porter was astonished by the re- 
sult, and wrote to the Secretary of the Navy, saying, 

" There seems to have been an especial Providence looking 
out for us, in providing a man [Lieutenant -colonel Bailey] 
equal to the emergency." 

Late in the summer of 1864 it was resolved to seal up the 
port of Mobile against British blockade -runners. For that 
purpose Admiral Farragut appeared (August 5th) off the en- 
trance to Mobile Bay, full thirty miles below the city, w^ith a 
fleet of eighteen vessels, four of them iron-clad. At the same 
time a land-force of five thousand men, sent from New Orleans 
by General Canby, was placed on Dauphin Island which di- 
vides the entrance to Mobile Bay into two channels. 

Farragut's vessels were the Hartford (flag -ship). Captain 
Drayton ; Brooklyn, Captain Alden ; Metacomet, Lieutenant- 
commander Jouett; Oc^o?'«rrt, Lieutenant -commander Green; 
Richmond, Captain Jenkins ; Lackawanna, Captain Marchand ; 
Monongahela, Commander Strong ; Ossipee, Commander Le 
Roy ; Oneida, Commander Mullaney ; Port Royal, Lieutenant- 
commander Gherardi ; Seminole, Commander Donaldson ; Ken- 
nebec, Lieutenant-commander McCann ; Ifaska, Lieutenant-com- 
mander Brown; and G^a/^'wa, Lieutenant- commander Wells. 
These were all wooden vessels. Tlie iron-clad vessels were the 




Ill 
1 



i 



1 1 



i 'if 



'WIM 



BATTLE IN MOBILE BAY. 345 

Tecumseh^ Commander Craven ; Manhattan^ Commander Nich- 
olson ; Winnebago^ Commander Stevens ; and Chickasaiv, Lieu- 
tenant-commander Perkins. 

The entrance to Mobile Bay was guarded by Fort Gaines, on 
the eastern point of Dauphin Island, overlooking the eastern or 
main passage, four miles in width; and on Mobile Point stood 
stronger Fort Morgan. These forts were well armed and man- 
ned, and within the bay, and not far distant, lay a small Con- 
federate squadron, commanded by Commodore Buchanan (see 
page 315.) His flag-ship was the Tennessee, a huge ram, and 
one of the most powerful of the war-vessels of that class. 
She was accompanied by three ordinary gun-boats — Selma, 
Morgan, and Gaines. 

Early in the morning of the 5th, Farragut proceeded to en- 
ter Mobile Bay. His wooden ships were arranged in couples, 
and lashed together for the purpose of passing between the 
two forts. The Hartford was tethered to the Metacomet, and 
the Brooklyn to the Octorara. Success largely depended upon 
the judicious movements of the fleet. That he might have a 
clear oversight of the whole, so as to give general directions to 
every vessel, he took a position near the round-top of the Hart- 
ford. There he was lashed to the shrouds, that he might not be 
dislodged by the shock of battle. From that lofty observatory 
a speaking-tube extended to the deck, through which he might 
give orders clearly, in defiance of the uproar of battle. In that 
perilous position the admiral remained during the terrible storm 
of shot and shell encountered in the passage of the forts and 
the fierce encounter with the " ram " and gun-boats. 

The four iron-clad vessels led the fleet in the attack, followed 
immediately by the Hartford and Brooklyn, with their tethered 
companions. At a little before seven o'clock the Tecumseh 
opened fire on the fort while she was yet a mile distant from 
it, and very soon a general engagement began. The Brooklyn, 
being peculiarly fitted for the work in hand, led the Hartford. 



346 STORY OF THE UNITED STATES NAVY. 

AVhen abreast Fort Morgan, she opened a heavy fire upon it 
^vith grape-shot, which soon drove the Confederate gunners 
from their more exposed batteries. At that moment a most 
appalling event occurred. 

The Tecumseh was about three hundred yards ahead of the 
Broohlyn^ when she was suddenly uplifted, and almost as sud- 
denly disappeared beneath the waters, carrying down with her 
Captain Craven and nearly all his officers and crew. Only 
seventeen of one hundred and thirty were saved. The Tecum- 
seh had struck a percussion torpedo, which exploded directly 
under her turret, making a fearful chasm, into which the water 
rushed in such volume -that she sunk in a few seconds. 

At this awful event just before her the Brooklyn recoiled. 

" What's the matter with the Brooklyn .^" Farragut asked 
his pilot above him. "She must have plenty of water there." 

"Plenty, and to spare, Admiral," the pilot replied. 

" What's the trouble ?" was shouted through a trumpet from 
the flag-ship to the Brooklyn. 

" ToriJedoes r was shouted back in reply. 

"Damn the torpedoes!" cried Farragut from his lofty perch. 
" Four bells ! Captain Drayton, go ahead ! Jouett, full speed !" 

The Hartford then passed the Brooklyn, assumed the head 
of the line, and led the fleet to victory. Farragut afterward 
said that, in the confusion which ensued on the sinking of the 
Tecumseh and the stopping of the Brooklyn, he felt that all 
his plans had been thwarted, and he was at a loss whether to 
advance or retreat. In this extremity his natural impulse was 
to appeal to Heaven for guidance, and he prayed : " O God, 
who created man and gave him reason, direct me what to do. 
Shall I go on ?" And it seemed as if, in answer, a voice com- 
manded him to "Go on !" and he did so. 

No more torpedoes were encountered. Farragut's ships 
poured such an incessant tempest of grape-shot upon the forts, 
that their guns were about silenced; but, as the National fleet 



', 'i\«ifft;iiiiiiii'Siii|iiii4iiniiy^^^^^^^^^ iiMk 




/f f'ffl:'lfl|pi 



^ir 



A POWERFUL "ham" CONQUERED. 349 

passed into the bay, tbe Confederate vessels made a furious at- 
tack upon them. The " ram " Tennessee rushed at the Hartford. 
but missed her. She returned the fire, and passed on. The 
three Confederate gun-boats concentrated their fire upon the 
flag-ship. In the course of an hour the Selma was a prize to 
the Metacomet, which had cast off from the Hartford and as- 
sailed her; and the other two Confederate gun-boats sought 
safety under the guns of the fort. 

Admiral Farragut now believed the fierce combat was ended, 
for, as darkness closed in, the forts were silent. He was mis- 
taken. Just before nine o'clock the Tennessee came down the 
bay under a full head of steam, and made directly for the Hart- 
ford, All the National vessels were immediately signaled to 
close in upon and destroy tlie monster. It was not an easy 
task, for it appeared absolutely invulnerable for several hours. 
The Monongahela first struck it a blow square in the side, and 
fired an 11-inch shot upon it, with very little effect, but lost 
her own beak in the encounter. The Lancaster, running at 
full speed, struck the "ram" and crushed in her own stem. 

Now the Hartford tried her powers upon the sea-giant. She 
gave the Tennessee a glancing blow, and a broadside of 10-inch 
shells at ten feet distance. Then the armored CkicJcasaiv ran 
under her stern ; and at about the same time, the Manhattan 
approached, and sent a solid 15-inch bolt that demolished its 
steering gear, and broke square through the iron plating of its 
hull, and the thick wood- work behind it. The Hartford was 
about to strike another blow, when the Lackawanna, aiming to 
do the same, came in collision with the flag-ship and serious- 
ly damaged her. Both vessels then drew off, and started at 
full speed to give the Tennessee a deadly blow by each ; and the 
Ossipee was also running at full speed for the same purpose, 
while the Chickasaw was pounding away at its stern. Thus 
beset and badly crippled, the Tennessee struck her colors, and 
became Farragut's prisoner, after fighting all night and until 



350 STOEY OF THE UNITED STxVTES XxVVY. 

ten o'clock in the morning. Her commander was badly wound- 
ed, and six of her crew were killed. 

The Confederate naval force in Mobile Bay was destroyed ; 
but Farragut's work was not all done. He had subdued per- 
haps the most powerful vessel ever put afloat ; but there stood 
the two forts still guarding the entrance to Mobile Bay. They 
must be captured before his task would be completed. 

The land troops under General Granger, on Dauphin Island, 
had begun the siege of Fort Gaines. Farragut sent the Chicka- 
saw to help them. She shelled the fort so effectually that on 
the following morniug (August 7th, 1864) it was surreudered, 
with its garrison of six hundred men. Stronger Fort Morgan 
still held out. Granger transferred his troops to the rear of 
that fort, and Farragut landed four 9-inch guns and placed them 
in battery under the command of Lieutenant Tyson, of the 
Hartford. When all .was in readiness, the fleet and army open- 
ed fire on the fort at dawn on August 22d, and, after a heavy 
bombardment for about twenty-four hours, it w^as surrendered 
to the admiral by its commander. General Page. 

By the capture of these forts, and a smaller fort near Mobile, 
the government came into possession of one hundred and four 
great guns, and fourteen hundred and sixty -four men made 
prisoners; and the port of Mobile was effectually and perma- 
nently closed against blockade-runners. 

The victories of Farragut at Mobile and of Sherman at At- 
lanta, following close upon each other, with other cheering 
events, gave assurance that the end of the Civil War could not 
be far in the future ; and President Lincoln, in view of bright 
promises of peace, issued a proclamation for a general thanks- 
giving, and also an order for salutes of artillery at the princi- 
pal arsenals, " for the signal success of General Sherman in 
Georo'ia, and of Admiral Farrao-nt at Mobile." 



MEDALS OF HONOR. 



351 



CHAPTER XXIV. 



Examples of individual bravery in the naval service, on both 
sides, during tlie late Civil War, abounded ; and the Secretary 
of the Navy took care that persons in the National naval ser- 
vice who performed any deeds 
specially deserving of commen- 
dation should be recognized and 
rewarded. 

By act of Congress, approved 
December 21st, 1861, the Secre- 
tary was authorized to cause two 
hundred bronze medals to be 
struck and bestowed upon those 
who " should most distinguish 
themselves by their gallantry and 
other commendable qualities dur- 
ing the present war." These 
Medals of Honor were in the 
form of a five-pointed star, with 
a device emblematic of Union 
crushing Rebellion. In a circle 
around the emblem were thirty- 
three stars, the number of States 

then comprising the Republic. The medal was suspended 
from the flukes of an anchor, which in turn was attached to 
a buckle, and ribbon striped alternate white and red. 

The first recipient of this American Order of the Legion of 
Honor was John Davis, gunner's mate of the Valley Citij, one 




MEDAL OF IIONOK. 



352 STOEY OF THE UNITED STATES NAVY. 

of Commodore Rowan's flotilla that defeated the Confederate 
forces at Elizabeth City, in February, 1862 (see page 301). 
Davis was in the magazine of that vessel, serving the guns out 
of an open barrel of gunpowder, when a shell entered and ex- 
ploded in the room, setting fire to the wood-work. Perceiving 
the imminent peril to the vessel and all on board, Davis imme- 
diately seated himself upon the barrel, and remained there until 
the fire was extinguished. The Secretary appointed him act- 
ing gunner in the navy, and gave him the Medal of Honor, and 
admiring citizens of New York raised and presented to Davis 
$1100. 

One of the most notable acts of a subordinate naval oflBcer 
serving in the Civil War was performed by Lieutenant W. B. 
Cushing, in the harbor of Plymouth, North Carolina, on the 
night of October 7th, 1864. The powerful Confederate " ram " 
Albemarle^ a great bugbear of the blockading squadron, was 
then lying at the wharf at Plymouth, behind a barricade of 
logs thirty feet in width. Her destruction was very desirable, 
and Cushing undertook the perilous task. A small steam- 
launch, fitted up as a torpedo-boat, was placed under his com- 
mand, and, covered by the intense darkness of the night, he ran 
in near the barricade, with a cutter in tow, before the men on 
the Albemarle discovered their peril. Then the sentinels sprung 
their rattles, the bells were rung, the commanding officer hail- 
ed, and firing from the " ram " began, all at the same time. 

Cushing ran the launch far into the log obstructions, in the 
face of a severe tempest of musket balls, lowered his torpedo- 
boom, and ran it directly under the overhang of the Albemarle. 
The mine exploded at the moment when the monster hurled 
from her gun a heavy bolt that crashed through and destroyed 
the launch. The Confederates kept up a fire at fifteen feet 
range, and called upon Cushing to surrender. He refused, and 
ordered liis men to save themselves as they might. The brave 
young hero, with others, leaped into the water in the gloom, 



EXPEDITION AGAINST FOKT FISIIEK. 353 

and he swum to the middle of the stream without being hit 
bv the Confederate shots, but most of the party were captured 
or drowned. Only one besides Gushing escaped. That officer 
reached the shore, and was kindly cared for by negroes. From 
them he learned, with great satisfaction, that his torpedo had 
made the Albemarle a hopeless wreck, and she had settled 
down in the mud near the wharf. On the following night 
(October 8th) Gushing captured a skiff belonging to a Gonfed- 
erate picket, and before midnight he was on board the Valley 
City lying in the offing. 

When Admiral Farragut had effectually sealed the port of 
Mobile, the attention of the Navy Department was turned to- 
ward the port of Wilmington, on the Gape Fear River, North 
Carolina, into which British blockade-runners, eluding the Na- 
tional vessels, were continually entering with supplies for the 
Confederates. At the mouth of the Gape Fear forts and bat- 
teries had been erected for the protection of these violators 
of law, and of the harbor of Wilmington. One of the most 
formidable of these protectors was Fort Fisher, a strong earth- 
work on the point of a narrow tongue of land on the right side 
of the entrance to the Gape Fear. It was about thirty miles 
below Wilmington. The land face of the fort occupied the 
whole width of the narrow cape known as Federal Point, and it 
was armed with twenty heavy cannons. The sea face exposed to 
a naval attack was about two hundred and fifty yards in extent. 

In the summer of 1864 preparations were made for a united 
service expedition against Fort Fisher. So early as August, 
armored and unarm ored vessels began to gather for the purpose 
in Hampton Roads, and in October full fifty vessels were there, 
including the Nein Ironsides and several monitors, under the 
command of Admiral Porter. By means of the blockading 
squadron Generals Weitzcl and Graham had already (Septem- 
ber) reconnoitred Fort Fisher, and ascertained its position and 
strength. 

16 



354 STORY OF THE UNITED STATES NAVY. 

In November General Grant placed six thousand troops from 
General Butler's Army of the James under General Weitzel, to 
assist Admiral Porter in the reduction of Fort Fisher. The 
war-fleet and the troops in transports departed from the Roads 
on the 14th of December, and rendezvoused at sea twenty-five 
miles east of the fort. It was the most formidable naval arma- 
ment ever put afloat. The Malvern (a wooden river or bay 
steamer) was the admiral's flag-ship. There were fifty-eight 
war-vessels in all, four of them monitors — the Saugus, Alonad- 
nock^ Ca)wnicus, and Mahopac. 

A capital feature in the plan of the expedition was the ex- 
plosion of an enormous floating-mine as near the fort as possi- 
ble, with the intention of demolishing the work, or so paralyz- 
ing the garrison that the seizure of the fort might be an easy 
task for the troops that were to debark immediately after the 
explosion. A captured blockade-runner was converted into a 
monster torpedo, charged with 430,000 pounds of gunpowder, 
and placed under the command of Captain Rhind (see page 
337). The powder was in barrels and bags, and penetrated by 
Gomez fuses for ignition. It w^as intended to have her towed 
near the fort by a tug, in which the crew, after firing combus- 
tibles which were placed on board the torpedo-vessel, might es- 
cape. 

The transports, with troops, waited three days at the ren- 
dezvous for the arrival of the war-fleet, and when they came a 
heavy storm was just rising. The transports were coaled and 
watered for only ten days, and were compelled to go in the 
gale up the coast to Beaufort, North Carolina, seventy miles, 
for these necessary supplies. Before their return with the 
troops that were to phiy an important part with the torpedo- 
vessel, Porter had exploded that mine, without any visible effect 
on the fort or garrison, and had bombarded the works several 
hours without doing them much harm. The troops arrived 
just at sunset, after the bombardment had ceased. 



FAILURE TO CAPTURE FORT FISHER. 355 

The next morning (Christmas, 1864) the whole expedition 
moved to the attack. The fleet opened the bombardment at 
ten o'clock, and kept it up without cessation until twilight, re- 
ceiving only feeble responses from the fort. Porter threw 
eighteen thousand sliots and shells ; the fort sent back less than 
seven hundred. This feebleness of response deceived the ad- 
miral ; and at three o'clock in the afternoon he passed Butler's 
head-quarters ship {Ben Deford) in the Malvern, and called 
out through his trumpet, " General, there is not a rebel within 
five miles of the fort. You have nothing to do but to march 
in and take it." 

It was a mistake. The fort had been re-enforced, and a gar- 
rison of full nine hundred men were within it. Only one of 
the twenty guns on the land face had been disabled by the 
too much enfilading fire of the fleet. 

Only about one-third of the troops had been landed, when 
the wind arose, and no more could disembark in the surf with 
safety. These were led toward the fort. Satisfied that a suc- 
cessful assault on the works could not be made in the face of 
the nineteen uninjured guns that might sweep the narrow cape 
when the enfilading bombardment should cease, Weitzel so re- 
ported to Butler, and the troops were recalled. The enterprise 
was abandoned for the time, but the fleet remained in the vi- 
cinity. The loss of the Nationals in this attack was about fifty 
men killed and wounded, nearly all by the bursting of six Par- 
rott guns of the fleet. The loss of the Confederates Avas three 
killed, fifty-five wounded, and three hundred made prisoners at 
supporting batteries that were captured. 

A new expedition against Fort Fisher left Hampton Roads 
on the 6tli of January, 1865. There were about eight thousand 
troops, under the command of General A. H. Terry. They were 
borne in transports which gathered off Beaufort, North Caro- 
lina, where Admiral Porter was supplying his fleet with coal 
and ammunition. On the 12th they all sailed down the coast, 



356 STOEY OF THE UNITED STATES NAVY. 

and appeared off Fort Fisber the same evening. The troops 
were landed the next day above the fort, under cover of the 
fire of the fleet, and Terry cast up lines of intrenchments in his 
rear. These were armed with the lighter guns of the navy. 

On the morning of the 13th the fleet, in three lines, opened 
fire on the fort, the New Ironsides and the monitors taking the 
lead in the engagement. A continuous but not rapid bombard- 
ment was kept up until dusk, and was renewed the next morn- 
ina; with greater vigor, while Terry was carrying forward his 
defences. 

Both arms of the service being fully prepared for a combined 
attack on the morning of the 15th, the entire fleet, excepting a 
division left to defend Terry's lines stretched across the penin- 
sula, moved up toward the fort, taking a better position than 
on Christmas for damaging the land front. All night long the 
monitors had been pounding the fort, allowing the garrison no 
rest ; now the fleet concentrated its fire on the land side of the 
fort. Very soon nearly every one of its twenty guns was dis- 
abled, the palisades in front were strewn in splinters over the 
sand, and the way was prepared for the impatient soldiers to 
assail the fort successfully. Meanwhile fourteen hundred ma- 
rines and six hundred sailors had been sent ashore, armed with 
revolvers, cutlasses, and carbines, and gave assistance to the 
army. 

As soon as the land troops were in a position for assault, the 
fleet changed its fire to the sea front of the fort. Between 
three and four o'clock in the afternoon the soldiers sprung for- 
ward, and very soon made a lodgment on the parapet near the 
Cape Fear River, while the marines and sailors made a desper- 
ate assault on the north-east bastion. They could not scale it, 
and were exposed to a murderous fire. 

Now the struggle was fierce and persistent all along the line 
of the fort on the land side. The personal encounters were 
desperate. The combatants fired in each other's faces at a 



SERVICES OF THE NAVY IN THE CIVIL WAR. 357 

few feet distant from each otlier. The Confederates were 
gradually pushed back, and at nine o'clock in the evening the 
contest ended. The portion of the garrison not already in the 
hands of Terry fled toward Battery Buchanan, hotly pursued, 
and were made captives. The fort was now surrendered by 
Colonel Lamb, who was then in command. His superior. Gen- 
eral Whiting, had received a severe wound, of which he died 
soon afterward in prison at Governor's Island, in New York 
harbor. 

The other fortifications at the mouth of the Cape Fear River 
soon shared the fate of Fort Fisher, and the port of Wilming- 
ton, the last one opened to British blockade-runners, was effect- 
ually and permanently closed. 

After the fall of Fort Fisher the navy had very little to do, 
excepting in the easy blockade service. Rear-admiral Thacher, 
with the Western Gulf Squadron, assisted in the final capture 
of the city of Mobile early in April, 1865. The fighting men 
there fled from the city, after abandoning their fortifications 
and sinking two powerful "rams" in the harbor. On the 11th 
of April nine hundred of them hastened up the Alabama River, 
in gun-boats and transports, in search of personal safety, and 
on the same day the civil authorities of Mobile surrendered 
that city to General Granger and Admiral Thacher. This was 
one of the closing scenes of the Civil War. 

The services of the navy of the United States during the 
Civil War, on account of their peculiarity, attracted less atten- 
tion than those of the army, and were not properly appreciated 
by the people. Viewed in the light of real usefulness in the 
holy work of saving the Union, that branch of the United Ser- 
vice has an equal claim with the army to the gratitude of the 
nation. There were few occasions for a display of skill and 
prowess in purely naval battles, for the Confederates had no 
ships at sea excepting a few unlawful cruisers that were built, 
armed, manned, and provisioned in British ports. 



358 STORY OF THE UNITED STATES NAVY. 

The National Navy proper was employed in the blockade 
service ; in assisting the attacks of the armies upon fortifica- 
tions along the rivers, and in the harbors, bays, bayous, and 
sounds on the borders of the ocean and the gulf, and in chas- 
ing the English-Confederate sea-rovers. 

Never in the history of the world were there occasions for 
such exhausting labors, and the display of highest courage in 
service afloat, as the American Navy was subjected to in its 
operations among the rivers and bayous of the south-western 
regions of the Republic. In this little volume only a mere 
shadowy picture has been given of a few of the most wonder- 
ful exploits of brain and muscle in that region. Many a vic- 
tory, over which the people shouted themselves hoarse in giving 
praise to the gallant army, might never have been achieved but 
for the co-operation of the navy. To the common observer it, 
in many instances, seemed to be only an auxiliary, or wholly a 
secondary force, when in truth it was an equal, if not the chief, 
power in gaining a victory. 

The energy displayed by the Navy Department, under the 
chief management of the Assistant - secretary (Gustavus Yasa 
Fox), was most remarkable. The weakness of the navy in the 
spring of 1861 has been already noticed (see page 290). It 
had been reduced to smallest proportions during fifty years of 
peace. It numbered only seven thousand six hundred men ; 
and three hundred and twenty-two of its officers, born in slave- 
labor States, abandoned the service and joined the enemies of 
the Republic. 

With abounding faith in the strength and patriotism of the 
loyal people, President Lincoln sent forth a decree that all the 
ports of States wherein insurrection existed must be closed to 
commerce by a strict blockade. The vessels for the purpose 
were soon prepared, and the Avork was done. Foreign nations 
protested and menaced, but a most stringent blockade was 
maintained by a competent force, from the capes of Virginia 



ENERGY OF THE GOVERNMENT AND NAVY. 359 

to the Rio Grande. At the same time flotillas of gun-boats 
and mortar -boats, protecting and aiding the armies in their 
movements, penetrated and patrolled the rivers through an in- 
ternal navigation from the Potomac to the Mississippi. 

" Necessity " was found to be truly the " mother of inven- 
tion." The world was soon enriched by new discoveries in 
naval science. The Monitor (see page 316) was created, and 
began a new era in naval warfare. Schools for nautical in- 
struction were established ; dock-yards were enlarged, or new 
ones were built. The places of the deserters were speedily filled 
by better men from the merchant marine, who promptly volun- 
teered their services to fight for the Union. At the end of the 
fierce struggle, the 7600 men of the navy when the war broke 
out had increased to 51,000. 

During the four years of strife, the government had caused 
408 war-vessels to be built, and 418 to be purchased and con- 
verted into war- ships, at a cost of about $19,000,000. Of 
these vessels, 318 were steamers. 

The threefold stimulants of patriotism, duty, and hope of 
personal emolument made the blockade service most eflficient. 
It required the greatest vigilance. The blockade-runners were 
swift -sailing steamers, with raking smoke-stacks, and were 
painted a fog-color in every part, so that they could not be 
distinguished at a little distance even in a slight mist. Al- 
though the British Government professed to be neutral, its 
sympathies were practically with the insurgents, and it per- 
mitted the merchants and adventurers of Great Britain to send 
vessels laden with every necessary material for carrying on the 
war against the Union, to violate the blockade. 

The profits of this business, if successful, were enormous. 
The blockade-runners exchanged munitions of war for cotton, 
tobacco, and other products of the Southern States. It is be- 
lieved, however, that a true balance-sheet would show that the 
losses fully equalled the gains. During the war the Nation- 



360 



STORY OF THE UNITED STATES NAVY. 



al Navy captured or destroyed 1504 blockade -runners; and 
the gross proceeds of property captured in them was about 
$23,000,000. The value of the vessels was about $7,000,000, 
making a grand total of losses of $30,000,000. To this add 
$15,500,000 paid by the British Government for property 
destroyed by the English-Confederate cruiser Alabama, and it 
will be perceived that sympathy of the ruling class in England 
for the confederated insurgents was rather expensive and whol- 
ly unsatisfactory. 




A BLOOKADE-RUiSMKR. 



There was a notable event in the naval history of the Civil 
War, which illustrated the Christian philanthropy of the Amer- 
ican people who were true to their government, in a remarkable 
degree. The blockade of the Southern ports created a scarcity 
of cotton in England, and the mills in the manufacturing dis- 
tricts were closed for the want of raw material. Very soon 
there was wide-spread distress among the poorly paid working- 
people of these mills. It was estimated that in Lancashire 
alone a million stomachs, dependent upon mill-labor for suste- 
nance, were deprived of proper nourishment, and large num- 
bers of families were on the verge of starvation. 

A pitiful cry of distress came over the sea and touched the 



A SHIP ON AN ERRAND OF MERCY. 361 

American heart. The merchants and other citizens of New- 
York heard it, and listened. Unmindful of the cruel injuries 
inflicted upon them by the sea-rovers, favored by the British 
Government, they fitted out the merchant-ship George Gris- 
wold, and sent it across the ocean laden with $100,000 worth 
of food for their suffering brethren in England. The Ala- 
baina, the English-Confederate cruiser, was then abroad illumi- 
nating the Atlantic Ocean with blazing American merchant-ves- 
sels which she had plundered ; and the United States Govern- 
ment sent an armed vessel from the National Navy to protect 
this messenger and almoner of mercy against the torch of the 
pirate. 

There is a great deal more pleasure in telling the story of 
the peaceful and beneficent labors of our navy than in relating 
its dealings with the enemies of our country by the use of the 
savage energies of gunpowder and brute force. But so long 
as the baser passions of human nature often direct the actions 
of nations as well as of individuals, the instincts of self-preser- 
vation demand that these savage forces shall be used in defence. 

May we not hope that there is a " good time coming," when 
"nations shall not make war any more?" That time will be 
when mankind shall be governed by the Golden Rule — "^1// 
things vjhatsoever ye icould that men should do to yon, do ye 
even so to them.'''' 

16* 



362 STORY OF THE UNITED STATES NAVY. 



CHAPTER XXV. 

Torpedoes have played an important part in naval opera- 
tions in America, especially during the late Civil War, when 
they were used chiefly as defenders of harbors, or posts on riv- 
ers, against the approach of hostile vessels. Their value as such 
defenders can scarcely be estimated. An example of their effi- 
cacy is found in the case of the swift destruction of the Te- 
cumseh, of Farragut's fleet, at the entrance to Mobile Bay (see 
page 346). 

One of these "infernal machines" made a lively time for a 
little while in the harbor of New York, in September, 1776. 
The British admiral's flag-ship Eagle was lying near Govern- 
or's Island, in that harbor. A Connecticut mechanic, named 
Bushnell, offered a torpedo of his invention to blow up the 
Eagle. It was composed of a small magazine of gunpowder 
in a sealed tin box, with clock-work attached, so constructed as 
to operate upon a spring at a fixed time that would communi- 
cate a blow to detonating powder, and ignite the contents of 
the box. 

A nautical machine called a marine turtle, constructed so as 
to contain a living man, was furnished to convey the magazine 
under water below a ship, when the operator might fasten the 
torpedo to the bottom, start the clock-work, and escape in his 
submarine vessel to a safe distance from the explosion. AVash- 
ington approved the measure, and a daring young man, named 
Ezra Lee, undertook the hazardous task. 

Young Lee entered the "turtle" in the evening, and with 
the magazine made a submarine voyage toward the Eagle. It 



DREAM OF THE LIBERTY OF THE SEAS. 863 

was a pleasant September niglit, and Washington and some 
of his officers watched until the dawn for the result. Just at 
daybreak they were about to retire with the sad impression 
that the daring- youth had perished, when they saw some barges 
dart out from Governor's Island toward an object near the 
Eagle, and then suddenly pull for the shore. A moment after- 
ward a column of water rose high in air near the flag-ship, pro- 
ducing great consternation. That vessel and others near hastily 
cut their cables, and drifted away toward Staten Island with the 
ebbing tide. 

Young Lee had been under the Eagle full two hours, vainly 
trying to penetrate "the thick copper sheathing of her bottom. 
lie had tried other vessels, but without success. At dawn he 
came to the surface ; but seeing the barges, he descended, set 
the clock-work agoing, and then made for the shore at the city, 
where he was received with cheers. In due time the magazine 
was exploded under the water. From that time until the city 
was captured by the British their vessels moved with caution 
in the waters around New York. 

AVe hear nothinsj more of these floating-mines until the be- 
ginning of the present century, when Robert Fulton, an Ameri- 
can portrait-painter, who had lived long in France, appeared at 
the British Court in 1804, and offered to that government an 
"infernal machine" which he called torpedo. He represented 
that with such a contrivance ships might be secretly destroyed. 
He was filled with the benevolent idea that the introduction of 
such secret and destructive agencies into naval warfare would 
have a tendency to do away with it, and so would be estab- 
lished what he called the liberty of the seas. 

The British Government gave Fulton an opportunity to make 
a public experiment with his invention in Walmer Road, not far 
from Deal, and furnished him for the purpose with an old Da- 
nish brig named Dorothea, and two boats manned with eight 
men each. The Dorothea was anchored in siofht of Walmer 



364 



STORY OF THE UNITED STATES NAYY. 



Castle, the residence of William Pitt the younger, then Prime- 
minister of England. 

Fulton's torpedo, like Bushnell's, was made to explode by- 
means of clock-work. It was cylindrical in form. He drilled 
the boatmen in their duties with empty cases. He placed one 
in each boat, which were seventy-five feet apart ; the torpedoes 
were connected by a line eighty feet in length ; when cast off 
at the same moment, they floated toward the vessel (which drew 
twelve feet of water) at an average depth of fifteen feet. When 
the connecting-line struck the haw^ser of the anchored brig, the 
torpedoes were swung round and brought directly under the ves- 
sel's bottom. 




DESTKUOTION OF THE " DOROTUEA.' 

When everything was in readiness (October 15th, 1805) Ful- 
ton performed the experiment successfully, in the presence of 
the Premier and a large number of naval officers. The brig 
was raised bodily about six feet and separated in the middle, 
and in twenty minutes nothing was seen of her but some float- 
ing fragments. 

The experiment was highly satisfactory ; but the British 



THE STEAMBOAT AND TORPEDO. obo 

Government refused to purchase the invention, because it was 
thought inexpedient for the " Mistress of the Seas " to intro- 
duce into naval warfare a system that would give great advan- 
tages to weaker maritime nations. This was an acknowledg- 
ment of the great value of Fulton's invention in naval warfare. 

Fulton came home, and at the beginning of 1807 he was at 
Washington with his drawings and his plans for a " torpedo 
war." The affair of the Chesapeake and Leopard (see page 
92) that year made the people look favorably upon any proj- 
ect that might serve to drive the British vessels out of Ameri- 
can waters. The government listened to him favorably, and 
by a small appropriation enabled him to repeat the experiment 
in Wahner Road. He utterly destroyed a vessel of two hun- 
dred tons with a torpedo. This event created a great sensa- 
tion in England, and the government was reproached for allow- 
ing the invention to go to America. 

Nothing further was done at that time, for Fulton was per- 
fecting his scheme for steam navigation. In September he 
won the greatest triumph of his life, wdien his steamboat Cler- 
mont went from New York to Albany in thirty -six hours, 
against wind and tide, and back; and so was begun the grand 
system of steam navigation which now prevails on the waters 
in every part of the world. 

But Fulton regarded his torpedo as of far greater value to 
mankind than the steamboat. In a letter to Joel Barlow, writ- 
ten immediately after the first passage of the Clermont on the 
Hudson River, he wrote, after describing that great achieve- 
ment : " However, I will not admit that it is half so important 
as the torpedo system of defence and attack, for out of it will 
grow the liberty of the seas, an object of infinite importance 
to the welfare of America and every civilized country. But 
thousands of witnesses have now seen the steamboat in rapid 
movement; they have not seen a ship-of-war destroyed by a 
torpedo, and they do not believe." 



366 



STOKY OF THE UNITED STATES NAVY. 



When war was declared by the United States against Great 
Britain in 1812, Fulton revived his torpedo scheme, but did 
not win the countenance of our government. But private en- 
terprise engaged in the business in unskilful ways. For ex- 
ample : A citizen of New York placed ten kegs of gunpowder 
mixed with sulphur in the hold of a schooner, and surrounded 




ROUKRT FUI.TON. 



it witli heavy missiles of stone and iron. Over these were 
placed barrels of flour, to wdiich cords were attached and con- 
nected with gun-locks in such a way that, when the bari'els 
should be removed, the gunpowder would be exploded. The 
schooner sailed for New London liarbor in June, 1813, off 
which a British blockading squadron was stationed. The flag- 
ship was the EamilUes, 74 guns, and lay not far from the 
mouth of the Thames. As was intended by the projector, the 



EFFECTS OF A TORPEDO EXPLOSION. 367 

schooner was captured by armed men in boats sent out from 
the Bamillies, while her own crew escaped to the shore. The 
wind fell before the prize could be brought to the side of the 
flag-ship. Lighters were sent out to unload her. The hatches 
were opened, and when the first barrel of flour was removed, a 
terrific explosion took place. A column of fire shot up full 
nine hundred feet in the air, and the schooner, with the first 
lieutenant and ten men of the Ramillies on board of her, was 
blown into fragments. Some of these fragments were thrown 
upon the deck of the flag-ship. 

A citizen of Norwich made a submarine boat similar to 
Bushneirs " turtle," w^th which he went under the RornilUes 
three times, to fix a torpedo to her bottom, but failed. Other 
similar attempts kept the squadron on the alert, and Captain 
Hardy, the commander, caused the bottom of his flag-ship to 
be swept every two hours day and night by a cable. 

An immense torpedo was taken out in an open boat, under 
cover of darkness, on a July night, 1813, and sent afloat toward 
the Plantagenet, 74 guns, lying off Cape Henry, Virginia. It 
exploded a few moments too soon, just in front of her bow. 
The scene was awful. A column of water twenty-five feet in 
diameter, and half luminous with lurid light, was thrown up at 
least forty feet, with an explosion as terrific as thunder, pro- 
ducing a shock like an earthquake. It burst at the crown, and 
flooded the deck of the vessel, and at the same time she rolled 
into the chasm produced by the expulsion of the water, and 
was nearly upset. Torpedoes were also placed across the Nar- 
rows at the entrance of New York Bay, and also at the en- 
trance of the harbor of Portland. The British commanders 
were made exceedingly cautious about entering any harbors, 
and the wholesome fear of torpedoes saved the American sea- 
ports from destruction. 

Torpedoes were lavishly used during the Civil War, particu- 
larly by the Confederates. They strewed the entrances to South- 



368 STORY OF THE UNITED STATES NAVY. 

ern harbors and the channels of Southern rivers, in many places, 
with them. After the capture of Fort Fisher (see page 354), 
the lower portion of the Cape Fear River was found filled with 
them, making the navigation exceedingly hazardous. So also 
was the James River for many miles below Richmond. 

These torpedoes were of various forms and construction — 
cylindrical, elliptical, double cones, and cones — made to be ex- 
ploded by percussion and by electricity. The Confederates 
also sometimes strewed the ground in front of their earth-works 
with terra-torpedoes, slightly covered with earth, to be exploded 
by the pressure of men's feet. 

As soon as Richmond w\as evacuated by the Confederates, a 
notable fishing excursion was undertaken by about three hun- 
dred men in several tugs and thirty small boats, all under the 
charge of Captain Ralph Chandler of the navy. These went 
a-fishing for torpedoes in the James River, between Dutch 
Gap and Richmond, in which portion of that stream they were 
abundant. Like electric eels, this game had to be very care- 
fully handled to avoid unpleasant shocks. The fishermen were 
expert, and had excellent luck. The sport began between nine 
and ten o'clock on the morning of April 3d, 1865, and it was 
over at five o'clock the same afternoon. It w^as carried on in 
this wise : The steam-vessels were protected by torpedo-nets, 
formed of ropes weighted with pieces of iron or lead, and fur- 
nished with hooks to catch the little submarine mines. These 
nets w^ere hung from spars placed athwart the bowsprit in 
front of the vessel, and sometimes in like manner along its 
sides. The torpedoes to be caught were made buoyant, placed 
at a depth under water so that a passing vessel might touch 
them and explode them by percussion. They were anchored 
by means of a chain attached to a segment of an iron sphere 
called a " mushroom." Many of them were made to be ex- 
ploded by galvanism or electricity, communicated by an attach- 
ed wire connected with a galvanic battery on shore. One of 



FISHING FOR TORPEDOES. 



369 



the latter was found in the deep channel at Drewry's Bluff, a 
short distance below Richmond, which contained nearly a ton 
of gunpowder, and was yet buoyed at the proper depth. 




In fishing for torpedoes, a net, like that protecting the bow, 
was placed off the stern and was dragged after the vessel as a 
fisherman drags his net. There were also common grapnels 



370 STORY OF THE UNITED STATES NAVY. 

used on single lines, as fishermen troll for fishes. AYhen a 
torpedo was caught, it was carefully hauled up to the surface 
and towed ashore by the men in small boats. When a nest of 
them was found that might not be removed readily, a little 
float was anchored above them with a small National flag upon 
it, by which pilots of vessels might be warned of the presence 
of danger. 

When news that General Weitzel had entered Richmond 
reached the Nationals at Dutch Gap, on the morning of the 
3d of April, Captain Chandler immediately started wdth his 
flotilla of torpedo-hunters in his flag-ship Sangamon^ and be- 
fore sunset had so cleared the river of them that the passage to 
Richmond was made comparatively safe, if conducted with pru- 
dence. The next morning President Lincoln went up to Rich- 
mond from City Point on the Malvern. Admiral Porter's flag- 
ship. The little warning flags were seen thickly planted in 
some places, but the vessel, by a tortuous course among them, 
avoided all danger. 

In a letter to the author. Captain Chandler, after describing 
these " infernal machines," wrote as follows concerning the 
relative position of the torpedo as an engine of war : 

"The torpedo is destined to be the least expensive but most 
terrible engine of defence yet invented. No vessel can be so 
constructed as to resist its power ; and the uncertainty of its 
locality would prevent the hostile fleet from approaching the 
supposed positions. In all collisions between hostile powers, 
whether army against army, ship against ship, or ship against 
fort, more or less bravery has been and is destined to be dis- 
played; but the uncertainty of the locality of the foe — the 
knowledge that a simple touch will lay your ship a helpless, 
sinking wreck upon the water, without even the satisfaction of 
firing one shot in return — calls for more courage than can be 
expressed, and a short cruise among torpedoes will sober the 
most intrepid disposition." 



NAVAL EDUCATION. 371 



CHAPTER XXVL 

Nautical education has received special attention in our 
country. In 1845 a Naval Academy was established at An- 
napolis, Maryland, by the Hon. George Bancroft, then Secretary 
of the Navy, for the education of officers for the American 
naval service. It is to the navy what the Military Academy at 
West Point is to the army. 

Boys are admitted to the Naval Academy when over fifteen 
and under eighteen years of age, where they remain four years, 
and then enter the navy as midshipmen. There they are in- 
structed in seamanship, naval tactics, and practical gunnery ; 
in steam engineering, mathematics, astronomy, navigation, and 
surveying ; in natural and experimental philosophy, field artil- 
lery, infantry tactics, ethics, English studies, international law, 
the French and Spanish languages, and drawing. There are 
two sloops-of-war attached to the institution, which are used 
at suitable seasons as practice-ships and for sailing upon ocean 
voyages. During the Civil War the academy was transferred 
to Newport, Rhode Island, for safety, but was returned to An- 
napolis soon after the close of hostilities. 

By act of Congress, in 1837, a naval apprentice system was 
undertaken, but was abandoned in 1843, and was not revived 
until 1864. The following succinct history of the English and 
United States training systems has been kindly furnished U 
the writer by Captain S. B. Luce, U. S. N., who has made the 
subject of the improvement of the navy in its efficiency and 
morale his special study and object of earnest effort for many 
years : 



372 STORY OF THE UNITED STATES NAVY. 

" Naval education in some form or another had its origin in 
very early times, but the training of seamen especially for the 
national or military marine is of comparatively recent date. 

" The French have the credit of first establishing schools for 
marine artillerists. With an increase in the knowledge of the 
art of gunnery came an increase in the demand for skilled gun- 
ners. It was in no small measure due to the improvement in 
guns, and the superiority of the gunnery practice of the Ameri- 
can seamen as exhibited in the naval engagements during the 
war of 1812-15 with Great Britain, that the attention of Brit- 
ish officers was called to this subject. Prominent among these 
was Sir Howard Douglass, who, though educated for the mili- 
tary service, had given much attention to naval affairs. Short- 
ly after the close of our last war with Great Britain, he urged 
upon his government the necessity of providing a systematic 
course of gunnery instruction for officers and seamen. 

"In 1817 Sir Howard submitted a plan for the organization 
of such a course, but it failed at the time to receive the atten- 
tion it merited. It was in consequence of his unremitting ef- 
forts, however, that an admiralty order, under date of June 19th, 
1830, directed that a gunnery school should be formed on board 
the Excellent, an old line-of-battle ship. The school thus open- 
ed has gone on steadily improving, until now it is considered 
one of the most important departments of English naval edu- 
cation. Its great object is to train seamen to become expert 
gunners, and to fill the position known as ' seamen-gunners.' 
The course requires that the seaman should not only himself 
become expert in handling guns, but that he should render 
himself capable of instructing others. It also includes small- 
arm practice, company movements, broad-sword exercise, and 
the use of the most modern arms of naval warfare. In each of 
these branches they are so thoroughly drilled as to become 
good instructors. 

"A committee of naval officers appointed in 1852 to inquire 



ENGLISH NAVAL TRAINING SYSTEM. 373 

into the various subjects relating to the manning of the Royal 
Naviy said in their report, referring to the Excellent, that they 
' could not overrate the advantages which the naval service had 
derived from the systematic instruction and training, both of 
officers and men, in gunnery and the use of arms as established 
on board that ship.' 

"Prior to 1853 the practice in the English Navy was to en- 
ter volunteers for particular ships, nominally for five years, but 
practically for the period during which the ship remained in 
commission, averaging from three to four years. Under this 
system, seamen who had been trained at great trouble and ex- 
pense, and had been brought to a state of the highest eflticiency, 
were suddenly disbanded, and allowed to drift off, some to a 
foreign flag and some to the merchant - service. This led to 
the recommendation by the committee of 1852, before alluded 
to, of the adoption of what is known as the ' Continuous Ser- 
vice Certificate,' the object of which was to induce the seamen 
to remain in the service by continuous re-enlistments. 'But,' 
they observed, in their report, ' it was chiefly to the boys that 
they must look for the gradual organization of a permanent 
navy.' 

"The recommendations of the board were carried into ef- 
fect as far as it was then (1853) deemed necessary. In 1855 
another royal commission, of which Vice-admiral the Earl of 
Hardwicke was chairman, was directed 'to inquire into the best 
means of manning the navy.' At that time there were only 
about 500 boys entered annually for the training-vessels*. The 
commission not only approved the recommendation of the 
board of 1852 in regard to the training of boys, but urged its 
extension. ' So sensible are we,' the report says, ' of the ad- 
vantages of early training, that we recommend that a large ship, 
capable of affording accommodation to 500 boys, should be 
placed at Portsmouth, and that four additional training-vessels 
should be provided, which would enable the whole of the boys 



374 



STORY OF THE UNITED STATES NAVY. 



required for the navy (2000 annually) to receive the same in- 
struction.' This recommendation was complied with." 

Lieutenant- commander F. E. Chad wick, U.S.N., while in Eu- 
rope in 1879, made a careful study of the training systems of 
England, France, Italy, and Germany, and made an elaborate re- 
port to the Secretary of the Navy. He says there are kept in 
the English training-ships about three thousand boys, w^ho un- 
dergo a course of training extending fourteen or sixteen months. 
They had employed in that service in 1879 five ships of the 
line, as follows : 



Ship. 


Station. 


No. of Boys. 


"Impregnable" .... 


Devonport 


906 


" Implacable " 


u 


714 


"St. Vincent" 


Portsmouth. . . . 


622 


" Boscawen " 


Portland 


518 


" Ganges " . . 


Falmouth 


534 





The entries in 1878 were about 2400, or equal to the num- 
ber of the annual waste in the Royal Navy. Each of the ships 
has attached to it a brig of about four hundred tons, and a 
hulk used for store-rooms and as a receptacle for newly-recruit- 
ed boys, where they remain about a week, to be fitted for the 
training-ships. There are studies in the common English 
branches, as well as in gunnery and seamanship. There are 
eighteen mercantile training-ships in England, two of which are 
for ofiicers, the others for seamen. Many of them are reform- 
atories ; some do not receive a boy who has ever been before a 
magistrate. 

In a letter to the writer. Lieutenant-commander Chadwick 
says: "The Greenwich Hospital School is a very remarkable 
institution, founded under William and Mary, primarily as an 
orphanage for the children, of both sexes, of men disabled in 
the service. It is now a training-school, in which are one thou- 



AMERICAN NAVAL TRAINING SYSTEM. 375 

sand sons of seamen and marines, received between ten and a 
half and thirteen years, and kept until they are fifteen and a 
half, when they are transferred to the training-ships. The 
school is on the half-time system, no boy studying for more 
than half the day, unless he belongs to one of the selected di- 
visions in which are the boys intended to be future school-mas- 
ters in the navy, for ship's writers, and paymaster's stewards. 
They make all their own clothing, shoes, etc. ; are carpenters, 
washermen (all the washing of the establishment is done by 
them), are bandsmen, etc. It is a great pity an application of 
such a system could not be made here, either in connection with 
the service or in civil life, as it turns out a most valuable boy." 

The French and German training system is different from 
the English. Of the two the German is the most thorough, ex- 
tending over three years, and alternating in service afloat and 
in barracks. The scholastic training includes arithmetic, geog- 
raphy, history, and music, and, in the case of a limited number 
who show themselves especially capable, English. The warrant- 
officers of the service are selected from these boys. 

" The principal instructors on board the English school- 
ships," says Captain Luce, "are the 'seamen-gunners' (many of 
them advanced to higher ratings), who had been carefully train- 
ed. The concurrent testimony of all familiar with the subject 
goes to show that, as instructors of enlisted boys, these ' seamen- 
gunners ' could hardly find their superiors." 

Concerning the American training system Captain Luce 
writes: "The experience in the United States Navy was simi- 
lar in many respects to that of England prior to 1853 ; that is 
to say, ships' companies would be under careful training during 
a three-years' cruise, only to be disbanded at the end of that 
time, and scattered to the four winds. Moreover, many of the 
seamen who foiind their way into the United States Navy were 
of foreign birth, owing allegiance to no flag in particular — ma- 
rine mercenaries, as it were. 



376 STORY OF THE UNITED STATES NAVV. 

"In 1835 Mr. John Goin, of New York, notary and ship- 
broker, started a project for the establishment of a naval school. 
The proposition was regarded generally throughout the Atlan- 
tic States with much favor. To give emphasis to the need of 
educating American seamen, it was stated in Congress by Mr. 
Rcade, of Massachusetts, at the time Chairman of the Naval 
Committee of the House, that out of one hundred thousand 
seamen sailing out of the United States only about nine thou- 
sand were Americans. The only remedy, it was declared, was 
the establishment of a naval school in wdiich boys could be 
trained for seamen. 

" While it seems to have been agreed on all sides that a 
school of the kind proposed was greatly to be desired, it was 
not determined whether it should be for the navy, for the mer- 
chant-service, or for both. It seems to have been pretty well 
understood, however, that the school was intended for the edu- 
cating of boys for seamen, and not for officers. 

"As one of the first results of the movement, a petition w^as 
sent to Congress from the city of New York, in 1837, asking 
for the establishment of a school-ship in that port. The effort 
does not appear to have met with success. Whether as an- 
other result of Mr. Coin's project or not does not appear, but 
certain it is that at Charleston, South Carolina, and Baltimore, 
Maryland, floating schools were opened without the aid of Con- 
gress, and for a time were in successful operation. 

" It was clearly one of the effects of the agitation of the 
question that Congress, in 1837, enacted that it should be 'law- 
ful to enlist boys for the navy, not being under thirteen nor 
over eighteen years of age, to serve until twenty-one.' With 
this authority a plan was speedily put in operation, and shortly 
afterward the frigate Hudson had tliree hundred apprentices 
on board. 

"A newc^paper of the day says: 'The North Carolina^ 74- 
gun ship, just arrived at New York, has been ordered by the 



AMERICAN TKAINING SYSTEJE TUIED. 3 i i 

Secretjii'v of the Navy to be anchored in Buttermilk Channel as 
a permanent school-ship for boys. The Columbus, 74, has been 
ordered to Boston for the same purpose.' Another paper at 
about the same time said : ' Captain Gedney has twenty-four 
boys on board the United States brig Washington, all smart, 
clever lads, whom he is bringing up as active seamen.' Again : 
' The sloop-of-war St. Louis, Captain French Forrest, has been 
rigged entirely by apprentice boys, under the direction of Cap- 
tain H.W. Ogden, of the Hudson frigate, and Lieutenant J. Har- 
ding Marshall' Again we read of a visit to the Java, where 
'the apprentices, neatly attired in sailors' garb, good-looking, and 
ranging from thirteen to eighteen years of age,' were observed. 
The entire Press of that day seemed to regard the experiment 
as one full of hope and promise for the navy of the future. 
But in five years our apprentice system had passed into the 
limhus fatuorum of history. 

" The confusion of ideas which marked its inception insured 
its failure. The instructions issued by the Secretary of the 
Navy (James K. Paulding) to commanders of vessels having 
apprentices on board, directed that they (the boys) ' were to 
be thoroughly instructed so as to best qualify them to perform 
the duties of seamen and petty officers.' Many of the appren- 
tices, belonging to the best families in the land, seemed to 
think that they were to be promoted, immediately upon be- 
coming familiar with certain duties on board ship, to midship- 
men at least, with the prospect of rapid advancement to higher 
grades. When these expectations were not realized, the boys 
became dissatisfied', and clamored for discharge. From one of 
the ships two apprentices did receive midshipmen's appoint- 
ments, which only intensified the dissatisfaction of those who 
did not. As a consequence, the Secretary of the Navy was 
besieged with applications, backed up by political friends, for 
discharge. The pressure was too great to be resisted. Large 
numbers were discharged, and others deserted. This, with 

17 



378 STUKY OF THE UNITED STATES NAVY. 

the utter want of coherence in the system itself, insured its 
dissohition. 

"In 1863 the United States Naval Academy Practice-ship, 
making the annual summer cruise, visited the ports of Plym- 
outh and Portsmouth, England. AVhile there the officers vis- 
ited the St. Vincent, the Excellent, and other ships already men- 
tioned as belonging to the training system of the English Navy. 
Oar officers were so much struck with the merits of the P^no-- 
lish system that, on the return of the ship to Newport, where 
the Naval Academy was then located, a report was made to the 
department calling attention to the subject, and recommending 
the adoption of a similar system for our own navy.' The rec- 
ommendation was at once adopted, and, by a circular order of 
the Secretary of the Navy, the law of 1837 was revived, and 
the United States frigate Sabine selected for the school-ship, 
under the charge of Lieutenant-commanding R. B. Lowry. In 
due time the sloops of- war Saratoc/a and Portsmouth were 
added as practice-vessels. 

" The apprentice system, thus started for the second time, 
prospered for awhile ; but it was again destined to fail from 
pretty much the same causes as had operated to insure the 
early dissolution of the first. A certain number of boys were 
each year admitted to the Naval Academy as midshipmen. Of 
course, those who failed to pass the required examinations be- 
came dissatisfied, and applied for discharge. Failing in this, 
many of the boys deserted the service. After lingering on a 
few years, the Sabine was put out of commission, and the ex- 
periment declared for the second time to be n failure. 

" In 1870 the subject was, for the third time, brought to 
the attention of the Navy Department. The law was again re- 



^ The Practice-ship alluded to was the old sailing-frigate Macedonian, 
commanded by Captain S. B. Luce, who, on his return, made the report to 
the Department spoken of in the text. 



DESIGN OF THE TUAINING SYSTEil. 379 

vived ill a circular issued by Secretary Robeson, under date of 
April 8tli, 1875. In pursuance of instructions contained in 
that circular, the United States steam - frigate Minnesota was 
commissioned as a school-sliip,^ and is now (1880) engaged in 
that service. Subsequently the old frigate Constitution and 
the sloops -of -war Portsmouth and Saratoga were added as 
practice-ships. The circular says : ' The education of the boys 
will comprise only the elements of an English education, alter- 
nating with practical seamanship and other professional occu- 
pations designed to prepare them for sailors in the navy.'' 

" From this clear exposition, it does not seem possible that 
any one could mistake the object of the naval training-school. 
It is not intended that the enlisted boy should ever become an 
officer in the line of promotion. To become a commissioned 
officer it is necessary to graduate from the United States Naval 
Academy at Annapolis. This should be clearly understood by 
those who look to the navy as their vocation for life. But if 
the enlisted boy is not to become a commissioned officer, he is 
not, on the other hand, to be a 'common sailor,' as many sup- 
pose, unless, indeed, he insists upon becoming one in spite of 
every effort to raise him to a higher level. 

"The 'common sailor' generally owes his position to mis- 
fortune and neglect. His only home is on board ship — gener- 
ally in the merchant-service — his element the sea. With small 
claim to scholarship, he is yet skilful in the duties of his call- 
ing. He can 'hand, reef, and steer,' not only in the pleasant 
breezes of a summer sea, but in the fierce wintry gales of the 
north Atlantic. Rough and unkempt as he may appear on 
shore, there is much about him, when the elements threaten 
with destruction his frail abode, that cannot fail to command 
our admiration and respect. 

"In the hour of dano-er the worth of the 'common sailor' 



' Under the command of Captain S. B. Luce, 



380 STORY OF THE UNITED STATES NAVY. 

is inestimable ; the clanger once passed, be is apt to be forj^otten, 
and in an idle hour on shore he, unbappily, too often forgets 
himself. But, invaluable as he is in his own peculiar sphere, 
he is, removed from that sphere, of little account in the general 
estimation. He never gets beyond the forecastle, and there 
are few good uses to which he can be put on shore. Contin- 
ued exposure and enforced neglect induce premature decay, 
and he ' shuffles oil this mortal coil ' often without a friendly 
hand to close bis eyes. 

" Tbe modern man-of-war's man is of a very different type. 
He is by no means a 'common sailor.' To an intimate knowl- 
edge of bis craft as a seaman, he adds the mihtary training 
which forms tiie essential feature of a military man. He must 
not only be a good marine artillerist, but he should be familiar 
with the use of the modern arms of precision. He must un- 
derstand the company movements as laid down for military 
organizations, and be so practised in the use of the sword tiiat 
he can use effectively the cutlass with which he is provided on 
board ship. Often called upon to operate on shore with field 
artillery, he must be expert in tbe use of tbat arm as well as 
with the rifle, and also have tbat adaptability to circumstances, 
tbat readiness of resource, which will enable him to maintain 
himself wbile absent from his ship. 

" Witlial, there must be in his composition a certain eleva- 
tion of moral tone to sustain him under tbe most adverse cir- 
cumstances ; a high motive power prompting him to obey the 
call of duty for duty's sake. Such a seaman is certainly no 
'common sailor.' He is not 'common' in any sense of the 
word. Such a man has a great moral value wherever he may 
be placed. His training certainly makes him a better citizen, 
and fits him in an eminent degree for many positions on shore, 
so that he should never become a burden to society. 

" The highest positions in the navy to which the enlisted 
boy may aspire are those of boatswain and gunner, who, Avith the 




NATAL APPRENTICES. 



TRAiNixG-sniPs I^' co>rMissiox. 383 

carpenters and sail-nuikers, are known as the 'warrant-officers' 
of tlie navy. Their pay ranges from seven hundred to eighteen 
Imndred dollars a year (and a ration equal $109 50 a year), 
according to the length and nature of their service. Hereafter 
all vacancies in the two former grades will be filled from the 
seamen-apprentices. Hence to the patient and deserving there 
is a prospect of good pay and a very respectable position in 
life. It is reasonable to suppose that, in the course of no very 
long time, the entire corps of -petty officers in the navy vtill be 
filled by the seamen who have passed through the training-ships. 

"The petty officers of the navy may be compared to the 
non-commissioned officers of the army, and represent the most 
respectable and trustworthy class of seamen. There are boat- 
swains' mates, $28 50 a month; gunners' mates, $28 50 a 
month ; quarter-gunners, quartermasters, cockswains, captains 
of tops, etc., $26 50 a month, and a ration equal to 30 cents a 
day. 

"The only necessary expense the seaman-apprentice is liable 
to is for his clothing, everything else being furnished liim by 
the government ; and, as he is expected to make his own clothes 
and keep them in repair, that item is not very great." 

The training-ships now (1880) in the service are the cruis- 
ers Minnesota, Constitution, Saratoga, and Portsmouth ; and 
the St. Louis, a stationary ship for the enlistment of boys at 
Philadelphia. The most active naval officers in promoting the 
efficiency of the training system are Commodores Shufeldt, 
English, and Whiting; Captains Lowry, Upshur, Luce, A. W. 
Johnson, Chandler, and Skerrett ; Commanders Evans and 
Crowninshield, and Lieutenant -commander Chadwick. Com- 
modore English is Chief of the Bureau of Equipment and Re- 
cruits, and, with warm sympathy for this peculiar service and 
well-directed energy, is doing much to insure the success of the 
training system, and to make it a permanent and most useful 
feature of the American Navy. 



384 STORY OF THE UNITED STATES NAVY. 

In May, 1880, there were 1152 boys under instruction in the 
training-sliips, 724 of whom were enlisted in 1879. The cos- 
tume of the boys (represented in the engraving on page 381) 
is composed of navy-bhie cloth for cold weather, and white 
duck for warm weather. 

Such is now the American training system in its experimen- 
tal phases. It is full of promise of future good, and is gaining 
in popularity every day. It promises to make the navy of the 
United States in the near future a model of excellence and ef- 
ficiency. 

Our mercantile marine will follow its example, for in the ele- 
vation of the character of seamen safety and profit are involved. 
There is no reason why the "common sailor" — the "man be- 
fore the mast" — may not stand on the same plane with any 
otl.er toiler with brain or muscle. May we not hope that the 
time is not far distant when the seamen of the United States, 
wliether in the navy of peace or the navy of war, will be enti- 
tled, by the claims of personal excellence, to as high a rank in 
the social scale as the members of any other industrial pursuit ; 
that the low moral and intellectual tone of life on the sea, 
which has been proverbial, will gradually give place to the in- 
fluence of mental cultivation, refinement in manners, and the 
practice of the higher virtues among American seamen ; that 
the epithet " Jack Tar " will not much longer be a synonyme 
of a class hitherto utterly excluded from the circles of "good 
society," with a vocabulary of their own that refined lips re- 
fuse to express, and doomed to an ostracism as rigid as that 
among Oriental castes? 

Here, my young countrymen, ends the Story of the Navy. 
If you have listened with attention to the narrative, I trust you 
have profited in heart and mind by the lessons it teaches, and 
been inspired with a warmer love for our Republic and its free 
institutions. You have perceived how our brave countrymen 



AV'ORDS FOR THE YOUNG. 385 

on the ocean have vindicated the national honor, protected 
American commerce on every sea, increased the national 
strength, and carried the seeds of Christian civilization to far- 
distant shores. 

Our beloved country has a coast -line of several thousand 
miles upon the two great oceans, extending across the temper- 
ate zone. Between those oceans are fertile fields, rich mines, 
and an intelligent and industrious population of fifty million 
souls, all of which compose the elements of a vast commercial 
system, touching with its fingers every inhabitable part of the 
globe. That commerce requires ships for transportation and 
armed ships for protection, guided and guarded by intelligent 
and virtuous men. In this noble occupation you may find an 
ever-widening field of usefulness. Through the salutary min- 
istrations of training-ships, in which the morals and physical 
health of the young are cared for with sleepless vigilance, you 
may enter upon this great theatre of activity, where in the ex- 
ercise of a proper spirit you may certainly win for yourselves a 
full share of the health, profit, and honor which await the pa- 
tient and faithful toiler in the world of industry. 

17^ 



APPENDIX 



The exploits of our Navy have ever been prolific tliemcs for 
American rhymers and poets. Philip Frenaii, sometimes called 
" the poet of the Revolution," wrote many dull rhymes on the 
subject of the American Navy and its conspicuous acts, from 
the time of the old War for Independence (l 7 75-83), until 
the close of the second AVar for Independence in 1815. Oth- 
ers wrote many songs and ballads on the same subjects, which 
were more remarkable for their patriotism than for their artis- 
tic excellence. 

These songs and ballads — some of them mere doggerels — 
were very popular, for they touched the hearts of the people, 
excited by stirring events in which they felt a deep interest. 
The songs lingered in their memories, and were sung at public 
gatherings long after the occasions which inspired them had 
passed into history. 

To give you an idea, my young countrymen, of the songs 
and ballads which entertained your grandfathers and great- 
grandfathers, I here present you with less than a dozen of the 
many scores of them which were written and sung bv patriotic 
men. 

During our late Civil War very few songs or ballads were 
written on the topic of the naval events of that conflict, 
The most notable w-as a poetic account of the fierce combat in 
Mobile Bay (see page 345), in August, 1864, written by Henry 
Howard Brownell, acting ensign of the Hartford, Admiral Far- 
ragut's flag-ship. It contains seventy irregular stanzas, and is 
published in the "Life and Letters" of the admiral. 



388 APPENDIX. 

THE SAILOR'S ADDRESS. 

From the London Evening Post, March 14th, 1775. 

Come listen, my lads, to a brother and friend ; 

One and all, to my song, gallant sailors, attend. 

Sons of freedom ourselves, let's be just as we're brave, 

Nor America's freedom attempt to enslave. 

Firm as oak are our heaits where true glory depends : 

Steady, boys, steady. 

We'll always be ready 
To fight all our foes, not to murder our friends. 

True glory can ne'er in this quarrel be won ; 
If Xew England we conquer. Old England's undone; 
On our brethren we then will refuse to fix chains. 
For the blood of true Britons flows warm in the veius. 
Firm as oak, etc. 

Shall courtiers' fine speeches prevail to divide 
Our affection from those who have fought by our side ? 
And who often have joined us to sink in the main 
The proud, boasting navies ot France and of Spain? 
Firm as oak, etc. 

Near relations of some who at court now do thrive, 
The Pretender did join in the year forty-five ; 
And many in favor, disguised with foul arts. 
While they roar out for George are for James in their hearts. 
Firm as oak, etc. 

Of such men as these let us scorn to be tools 
Dirty work to perform — Do they take us for fools ? 
Brave sailors are ready to strike for the right ; 
Let them turn out themselves and engage in the fight. 
Firm as oak, etc. 

To the ground may disputes with our colonies fall, 
And George long, in splendor, reign king of us all ; 
And may those who would set the two lands by the ears 
Be put in the bilboes, and brought to the jeers. 
Firm as oak are our hearts where true glory depends : 

Steady, boys, steady, 

We'll always be ready 
To fight all our foes, not to murder our friends. 



APPENDIX. 389 

SONG 
ON CAPTAIN BARNEY'S VICTORY OVER THE SHIP "GENERAL MONK." 

See page 53. 

O'er the waste of waters cruising, 

Long the General Monk had reign'd ; 
All subduing, all reducing, 

None her lawless rage restrain'd. 
Many a brave and hearty fellow, 

Yielding to this warlike foe, 
When her guns began to bellow. 

Struck his humbled colors low. 

But, grown bold with long successes. 

Leaving the wide watery way, 
She, a stranger to distresses, 

Came to cruise within Cape May. 
"Now, we soon," said Captain Rodgers, 

" Shall these men of commerce meet ; 
In our hold we'll have them lodgers — 

We shall capture half their fleet. 

" Lo ! I see their van appearing — 

Back our top-sails to the mast ; 
They toward us full are steering. 

With a gentle western blast. 
I've a list of all their cargoes, 

All their guns, and all their men ; 
I am sure these modern Argos 

Can't escape us, one in ten. 

" Yonder comes the Charmhu/ Snih/, 

Sailing with the General Greene ; 
First we'll fight the Hydcr All — 

Taking her is taking them. 
She intends to give us battle, 

Bearing down with all her sail : 
Now, boys, let our cannon rattle. 

To take the ship we cannot fail. 

" Our eighteen guns, each a nine-pounder, 

Soon shall terrify this foe ; 
We shall maul her, we shall wound her, 

Brinsiing rebel colors low." 



390 APPENDIX. 

"While he thus anticipated 

Conquests that he could not gain, 

He in Cape May channel waited, 
For the ship that caused his pain. 

Captain Barney there preparing. 

Thus addressed his gallant crew : 
" Now, brave lads, be bold and daring, 

Let your hearts be firm and true ; 
This is a proud English cruiser, 

Roving up and down the main ; 
We must fight her — must reduce her, 

Though our deck be strew'd with slain, 

" Let who will be the survivor, 

We must conquer or must die ; 
We must take her up the river, 

Whate'er comes of you and L 
Though she shows most formidable, 

With her eighteen pointed nines, 
And her quarter clad in sable, 

Let us balk her proud designs. 

" AVith four nine-pounders and twelve sixes, 
We will face that daring band ; 

Let no dangers damp your courage. 
Nothing can the brave withstand. 

Fighting for your country's honor. 
Now to gallant deeds aspire ; 

Helmsman, bear us down upon her! 



Then, yard-arm and yard-arm meeting. 

Straight began the dismal fray ; 
Cannon mouths, each other greeting, 

Belch'd their smoky flames away. 
Soon the langrage, grape, and chain-shot. 

That from Barney's cannon flew, 
Swept the Monk, and cleared each round-top, 

Killed and wounded half her crew. 

Captain Rodgers strove to rally — 
But they from their quarters fled, 

While the roaring Hi/der AH 

Covered o'er his decks with dead. 



APPENDIX. 391 

When from tops their dead men tumbled, 

And the streams of blood did flow, 
Then their pi'oudest hopes were humbled 

By their brave inferior foe. 

All aghast and all confounded. 

They beheld their champions fall ; 
And their captain, sorely wounded. 

Bade them quick for quarters call. 
Then the Monk's proud flag descended, 

And her cannon ceased to roar ; 
By her crew no more defended. 

She confess'd the contest o'er. 



"CONSTELLATION" AND " INSURGENTE." 

See, ^mge 70. 

Come, all ye Yankee sailors, with swords and pikes advance, 

'Tis time to try your courage, boys, and humble haughty France. 

The sons of France our seas invade, 

Destroy our commerce and our trade ; 

'Tis time the reck'ning should be paid 

To brave Yankee boys. 

On board the Constellation from Baltimore we came. 
We had a bold commander, and Truxtun was his name : 

Our ship she mounted forty guus. 

And on the main so swiftly runs. 

To prove to France Columbia's sons 
Are brave Yankee boys. 

We sail'd to the West Indies in order to annoy 
The invaders of our commerce, to burn, sink, and destroy. 
Our Constellation shone so bright, 
The Frenchmen could not bear the sight. 
And away they scampered in a fright. 
From brave Yankee boys. 

'Twas on the 9th of February, at Montserrat we lay, 

And there we spied the Insurgcnte, just at the break of day. 

We raised the orange and the blue, 

To see if they the signals knew, 

The Constellation and her crew 
Of brave Yankee bovs. 



392 APPENDIX. 

All hands were caHVl to quarters, and we pursued in chase, 

With well-prim'd guns, our tompions out, and well splic'd the main-brace. 

Soon to the French we did draw nigh, 

Compell'd to fight, they were, or fly. 

The word was passed, " Conquer or Die," 
My brave Yankee boys. 

Loud our cannons thundered, with peals tremendous roar, 

And death upon our bullets' wings that drenched their decks with gore ; 

The blood did from their scuppers run ; 

Their chief exclaimed, " We are undone !" 

Their flag they struck, the battle won 
By brave Yankee boys. 



THE DEY OF ALGIERS. 

See page 279. 

The Dey of Algiers, not being afraid of his ears. 

Sent to Jonathan once for a tribute ; 
" Ho, ho !" says the Dey, " if the rascal don't pay, 

A caper or two I'll exhibit. 

" I'm the Dey of Algiers, with a beard a yard long, 
I'm a Mussulman too, and of course very strong : 
For this is my maxim, dispute it who can, 
That a man of stout muscle's a stout Mussulman." 

" They say," to himself one day says the Dey, 
" I may bully him now without reckoning to pay ; 
There's a kick-up just coming with him and John Bull, 
And John will give Jonathan both his hands full." 

So he bullied our consul, and captured our men. 
Went out through the Straits and came back safe again, 
And thought that his cruisers in triumph might ply 
Wherever they pleased — but he thought a big lie. 

For when Jonathan fairly drove John Bull away, 
He prepared him to settle accounts with the Dey ; 
Says he, *' I will send him an able debater:" 
So he sent him a message by Stephen Decatur. 



APPENDIX. 393 

Away went Decatur to treat with the Dey, 
But he met the Dey's admiral just on the way; 
And by way of a tribute just captured his ship ; 
But the soul of the admiral gave him the slip. 

From thence he proceeded to Algesair's Bay, 

To pay his respects to his highness the Dey, 

And sent him a message, decided, yet civil ; 

But the Dey wish'd both him and iiis note to the devil. 

And when he found out that the admiral's ship 
And the admiral, too, had given him the slip, 
The news gave his highness a good deal of pain, 
And the Dey thought he'd never see daylight again. 

"Ho, ho !" says the Dey, " if this is the way 

This Jonathan reckons his tribute to pay, 

Who takes it will tickle his fingers with thorns;" 

So the Dey and the Crescent both hauled in their horns. 

He caird for a peace, and gave up our men, 
And promised he'd never ask tribute again ; 
Says his highness the Dey, " Here's the devil to pay. 
Instead of a tribute, heigh-ho ! well-a-day !" 

And never again Avill our Jonathan pay 
A tribute to potentate, pirate, or Dey ; 
Nor any but that to which power is given — 
The tribute to Valor, to Virtue, and Heaven. 



RODGERS AND VICTORY. 

Sfie ])nge 97. 

John Bull, who has for ten years past 

Been daily growing prouder, 
Has got another taste, at last. 
Of Yankee ball and powder. 
Yankee-doodle, join the tune 

To every freeman handy, 
Let's shake the foot, and rigadoon 
To Yankec-doodle-dandy. 



394 APPENDIX. 



His wrongs and insults have increased, 

Till Yankees cannot bear 'em, 
And as they wish'd to live in peace, 
He thought that he could scare 'em. 
But Yankees know their good old tune, 

For fun or fighting handy. 
For battle or for rigadoon 
'Tis Yankee-doodle-dandy. 

You all remember well, I guess, 

The Chempeake disaster. 
When Britons dared to kill and press 
To please their royal master. 

That day did murder'd freemen fall ; 
Their graves are cold and sandy ; 
Their funeral dirge was sung by all, 
Xot Yankee-doodle-dandy. 

But, still, for this we mann'd no ship, 

But used expostulation ; 
They murder'd Pierce— they fired on Tripp ; 
We bore the degradation. 

For though we can like tigers fight. 

Yet peaceful joys are handy ; 
Like brothers still w^e would unite 
With Yankee-doodle-dandy. 

The tools of British power, who steal 

And murder on the ocean, 
For every wrong they make us feel 
Meet honor and promotion. 
I guess if father was not dead 

He'd think us very Ijandy, 
And ask where all the fire had fled 
Of Yankee-doodle-dandy. 

But, finding injmnes prolong'd 

Become a growing evil. 
Our commodore got leave, if wrong'd, 
To blow 'em to the devil. 

And Rodgers is a spunky lad. 

In naval battles handy ; 
'Twas he wlio whipt the Turks so well 
With Yankee-doodle-dandy. 



APPENDIX. 39.' 

So off he goes and tells his crew ; 

The sails were quickly bent, sir ; 
A better ship you never knew, 
She's called the President, sir. 

They hoisted up the top-sails soon, 

The sailors are so handy ; 
While drums and fifes struck up the tune 
Of Yankee-doodle-dandy. 

On Thursday morn we saw a sail. 

Well arm'd with gun and swivel ; 
Says Rodgers, " We will chase and hail, 
And see if she'll be civil." 

So after her they hastened soon. 

The sailors are so handy ; 
While drums and fifes still played the tune 
Of Yankee-doodle-dandy. 

" What sail is that ?" bold Rodgers cried, 

Which made the British wonder ; 
Then with a gun they quick replied. 
Which made a noise like thunder. 
Like lightning we returned the joke, 

Our matches were so handy ; 
The Yankee bull-dogs nobly spoke 
The tune of doodle-dandy. 

A brilliant action then began, 

Our fire so briskly burn'd, sir. 
While blood from British scuppers ran, " 
Like Seventy-six returned, sir. 

Our cannons roar'd, our men huzza'd, 

And fired away so handy. 
Till Bingham struck, he was so scared. 
At hearing doodle-dandy. 



" CONSTITUTION " AND " GUERRIERE." 

See page 109. 

" By the trident of Neptune," brave Hull cried, " let's steer ; 
It points out the track of the bullying Gicerriere ; 
Should we meet her, brave l)oys, ' Seamen's rights ' be the cry 
We fight to defend them, to live free or die." 



396 APPENDIX. 

The famed Constitution through the billows now flew, 
While the spray to the tars was refreshing as dew, 
To quicken the sense of the insult they felt 
In the boast of the Guerriere's not being the Belt. 

Each patriot bosoni now throbbed with delight. 

When, joyful, the cry was, " A sail is in sight !" 

" Three cheers !" cried the captain: " my lads, 'tis the foe; 

British pride shall this day be by Yankees laid low." 

Behold now the Guerriere, of Britain the boast. 
Her top-sails aback, and each tar to his post ; 
While Dacres a flag did display from each mast. 
To show that, as Britons, they'd flght to the last. 

The American stars now aloft were unfurl'd. 

With her stripes to the mizzen-peak : a proof to the world 

That, howe'er British pride might bluster or fret. 

The sun of her glory should not that day be set. 

Now, prim'd with ambition, her guns loaded full, 

The Guerriere's broadsides roar'd tremendous at Hull ; 

Not only the hero, ship, and crew to annoy, 

But the Hull of our freedom, our rights to destroy. 

As the brave Constitution her seamen drew nigh, 

Each heart beat with valor, joy glisten'd each eye ; 

While Hull, whose brave bosom with glory did swell, 

Cried, " Free trade — seamen's rights ! now let every shot tell. 

Quick as lightning, and fatal as its dreaded power, 
Destruction and death on the Guerriere did shower ; 
While the groans of tlie dying were heard in the blast. 
The word was, " Take aim, boys, away with the mast !" 

The genius of Britain will long rue the day ; 
The Guerriere''s a wreck in the trough of the sea ; 
Her laurels are withered, her boasting is done : 
Submissive — to leeward she fires her last gun. 

Now brilliant the stars of America shine. 
Fame, honor, and glory, brave Hull, they are thine ; 
You have Neptune amazed, caused Britain to weep, 
While Yankees triumphantly sail o'er the deep. 



APPENDIX. 397 



The sea, like the air, by great Nature's decree, 
Was given in common, and sliall ever be free ; 
But if Ocean's a turnpike where Britain keeps toll, 
Hull, Jones, and Decatur will pay for the whole. 



JONES'S VICTORY. 

See page 118. 

Ye brave sons of freedom, whose bosoms beat high 
For your country, with patriot pride and emotion, 

Attend while I sing of a wonderful Wasp^ 

And the Frolic she gallantly took on the ocean. 

This tight little Wasp, of true Yankee stuff. 

From the shores of Columbia indignant paraded ; 

Her eye flashed with fire, her spirit flam'd high, 

For her rights they were basely by Britons invaded. 

Swift over the wave for the combat she flew. 

By a sting, keen and terrible, arm'd and defended ; 

Her broOid wings were white as the rough ocean spray. 
And sixteen long arms from her sides she extended. 

The winds waft her gayly — but soon on the way 
The foe of her fathers for battle array'd him ; 

From his forehead were waving the standards of Spain, 
But the proud step and stare of his nation betray'd him. 

Like the fierce bird of Jove, the Wasp darted forth. 
And he the tale told with amazement and wonder; 

She hurl'd on the foe, from her flame-spreading arms. 
The firebrands of death, and the red bolts of thunder ! 

And, oh, it was glorious and strange to behold, 

What torrents of fire from her red mouth she threw, 

And how from her broad wings and suli)hurous sides 
Hot showers of grape-shot and rifle-balls flew ! 

The foe bravely fought, but his arms were all broken, 
And he fled from his death-wound, aghast and affrighted 

But the Wasp darted her death-doing sting. 
And full on his bosom like lightning alighted. 



398 APPENDIX. 

She pierced through his entrails, she maddened his brain, 
And he writhed and he groaned as if torn with the colic 

And long shall John Bull rue the terrible day 
He met the American Wasp on a Frolic. 

The tremors of death now invaded his limbs, 

And the streams of his life-blood his closing eyes drown 

When lo ! on the wave this Colossus of pride, 
The glory and pomp of John Bull tumbled down. 



AMEKICAX PERRY. 

See page 194. 

Bold Barclay one day to Proctor did say, 

" I'm tired of Jamaica and cherry ; 
So let us go down to that new floating town, 
And get some American Perry. 
Oh, cheap American Perry ! 
Most pleasant American Perry ! 
We need only bear down, knock, and call. 
And we'll have the American Perry. 

'' The landlady's kind, weak, simple, and blind ; 

We'll soon be triumphantly merry ! 
We've cash in the locker, and custom shall shock her, 
And we'll soon get a taste of her Perry. 
Oh, the American Perry ! • 
The sparkling American Perry ! 
No trouble we'll find your orders to mind. 
So away for American Perry." 

All ready for play, they got under way, 

With heart and hand right voluntary ; 
But when they canie there, they quickly did stare 
At the taste of American Perry, 
Oh, the American Perry ! 
The sparkling American Perry! 
How great the deception, when such a reception 
They met from American Perry. 

They thought such a change was imdoubtedly strange. 

And rued their unlucky vagary ; 
" Your liquor's too hot — keep it still in the pot ; 

Oh, cork vour American Perrv. 



APPENDIX. 399 

Oh, this American Perry ! 
Fiery American Perry ! 
In my noddle 'twill work; it's a dose for a Turk — 
Oh, oh, this American Perry." 

Full surely they knew the scrape would not do : 

'Twould ruin his Majesty's Ferry ; 
So they tried to tui-n tail, with a rag of a sail, 
And quit this American Perry. 
Oh, the American Perry ! 
Flushing American Perry ! 
But the crossing the lake was all a mistake — 
They had swallowed too much of the Perry. 

Then Barclay exclaimed, "I cannot be blamed. 

For well I defended each wherry ; 
My men are so drunk, and some so defunct — 
If I strike to American Perry. 
Oh, this American Perry ! 
Thund'ring American Perry ! 
Such hot distillation Avould fuddle our nation, 
Should it taste the American Perry." 

The stuff did so bruise his staggering crews. 

That some with their feet were unwary. 
While some had their brains knocked out for their pains 
By this shocking American Perry. 
Oh, American Perry ! 
Outrageous American Perry ! 
Old tough British tars, all covered with scars, 
Capsized by American Perry. 

The Indians on shore made a horrible roar, 

And left every ground-nut and berry ; 
Then scamper'd away, for no relish had they 
For a dose of American Perry. 
Oh, American Perry ! 
Confounding American Perry ! 
While General Proctor looked on like a doctor 
At the deadly American Perry. 

The Briton Avas sick, being pea)'\l to the quick, 

And his vessels Avere quite f ragmentai-y ; 
So, scolding his luck, he prudently struck 

To a stream of American Peri\'. 



400 APPENDIX. 

Oh, American Perry ! 
Persevering American Perry ! 
A whole British fleet, ship to ship, has been beat 
By an American Commodore — " Perry." 

On American ground, where sucli spirit is found. 

Let us toast the brave " Heroes of Erie ;" 

And never forget those whose life-sun did set 

By the side of their Commodore Perry — 

Oh, brave American Perry ! 

Triumphant American Perry ! 

Let us remember the " Tenth of September," 

When a fleet struck to Commodore Perrv. 



SIEGE OF PLATTSBURG. 

See page 216. 
The following soug, written iu imitation of negro dialect, was written by Mica- 
jah Hawkins for the proprietor of a theatre in Albany, and was sung by him in 
the character of a negro sailor. Governor Tompkins and his staff, and other emi- 
nent men, were present when it was first sung. Hawkins gained great applause 
by this performance immediately after the victory at Plattsbnrg, iu 1S14, for it 
touched a chord of sympathy iu the popular heart. 
Tu>E : Boy lie Water. 
Backside Albany stan' Lake Champlain, 

Leetlc pond half full o' water ; 
Plat-te-burg dar too, clus 'pon de main ; 

Town small — he grow bigger, do, herearter. 
On Lake Champlain L^ncle Sam set he boat,' 

An' Massa Macdonough he sail 'em ; 
While Gineral Macomb make Plat-te-burg he home 
Wid de army, whose courage neber fail 'em. 

On lebenth day Sep-tem-ber, 

In eighteen hun'red and fourteen, 
Gubbernor Probose an' he British soj-er 

Come to Plat-te-burg a tea-party courtin'. 
An' he boat come too, arter Uncle Sam's boat ; 

Massa Donough he look sharp out de winder ; 
Den Gineral Macomb (ah ! he always a-home) 

Catch fire too, jiss like a tinder. 

"Bang! bang! bang!" den de cannons 'gin to roar. 
In Plat-te-burg and all 'bout dat quarter ; 

Gubbernor Probose try he han' 'pon de shore, 
While he boat take a luck 'pon de water ; 



APPENDIX. 401 

But Massa Macdonough knock he boat in he head, 
Breake he heart, breake he shin, 'tove he caff in ; 

An' Gineral Macomb start ole Probose hum — 
To't my soul den I mus' die a-laffiu'. 

Probose scare so he lef all behine, — 

Powder, ball, cannon, teapot, and kittle ; 
Some say he cotch a cole — trouble in he mine, 

'Cause he each so much raw an' cole vittle. 
Uncle Sara bery sorry, to be sure, for he pain, 

Wish he nuss heself up well an' hearty, 
For Gineral Macomb an' Massa Donough home, 

When he notion for anudder tea-party ! 



BROTHER JONATHAN'S EPISTLE TO JOHN BULL, 1814. 

Oh, Johnny Bull my jo, John, I wonder what you mean ? 

Are you on foreign conquests bent, or what ambitious scheme ? ; 

Ah, but to Brother Jonathan your fruitless plans forego ; 

Remain in your fast-anchored isle, oh, Johnny Bull my jo. 

Oh, Johnny Bull my jo, John, don't come across the main ; 
Our fathers bled and suffered, John, our freedom to maintain ; 
And him who in the cradle, John, repell'd the ruthless foe. 
Provoke not, when to manhood grown, oh, Johnny Bull my jo. 

Oh, Johnny Bull my jo, John, you've proud and haughty grown ; 
The ocean is a highway, which you falsely call your own ; 
And Columbia's sons are valiant, John, nor fear to face the foe, 
And never yield to equal force, oh, Johnny Bull my jo. 

Oh, Johnny Bull my jo, John, your Peacocks keep at home, 

And ne'er let British seamen in a Frolic hither come ; 

For we've Hornets and we've Wasps^ John, who, as you doubtless know, 

Carry stingers in their tails, oh, Johnny Bull my jo. 

When I name our naval heroes, John, oh, hear Old England's groans 
There's Bainbridge, Porter, Blakeley, Decatur, Hull, and Jones ; 
And while for gallant Lawrence our grateful tears shall flow, 
We never will give up the ship, oh, Johnny Bull my jo. 

Oh, Johnny Bull my jo, John, on Erie's distant shore 
See how the battle rages, and loud the cannons roar ; 
But Perry taught our seamen to crush the assailing foe ; 
He met and made them ours, oh, Johnny Bull my jo. 

18 



402 APPENDIX. 

Oh, Johnny Bull my jo, John, behold on Lake Champlain, 
With more than equal force, John, you tried your fist again ; 
But the cock saw how 'twas going, and cried " cock-a-doodle-doo," 
And Macdonough was victorious, oh, Johnny Bull my jo. 

Your soldiers on the land, John, on that eventful day, 

Mark'd the issue of the conflict, and then they ran away ; 

And Macomb would have Burgoyn'd, John, your Governor Prevost, 

But, ah ! he was too nimble, oh, Johnny Bull my jo. 

Oh, Johnny Bull my jo, John, in night attacks and day, 

We drove you from Fort Erie, flogged you at Chippewa ; 

There's Porter, Brown, and Ripley, Scott, and Gaines to face the foe, 

And they use the bayonet freely, oh, Johnny Bull my jo. 

What though at Washington, a base, marauding band 
Our monuments of art, John, destroyed with ruthless hand ; 
Oh, it was a savage warfare, John, beneath a generous foe ; 
It brings the most disgrace on you, oh, Johnny Bull my jo. 

Oh, Johnny Bull my jo, John, don't send your Cochrane o'er, 

Few places are assailable on this our native shore ; 

And we'll leave our homes and friends, John, and crush the reptile foe 

That dares pollute our native soil, oh, Johnny Bull my jo. 

Oh, Johnny Bull my jo, John, when all your schemes had failed, 
To wipe away the stigma, John, for New Orleans you sailed ; 
But heavier woes await you, John, for Jackson meets the foe, 
'Wliose name and fame's immortal, oh, Johnny Bull my jo. 

Oh, Johnny Bull my jo, John, your Pakenham's no more ; 
The blood of your invincibles crimsons our native shore; 
No Hampton scenes are here, John, to greet a savage foe, 
Nor " booty " — no, nor " beauty," oh, Johnny Bull my jo. 

Oh, Johnny Bull my jo, John, your heroes by the score. 
Are sleeping their last sleep, John, by Mississippi's shore, 
You say your sons are valiant, John ; I grant they may be so, 
But more valiant are our Yankee boys, oh, Johnny Bull my jo. 

Your schemes to gather laurels here, I guess, were badly planned ; 
We have whipp'd you on the ocean, John, we've thrashed you on the land 
Then hie thee to Old England, John, your fruitless plans forego. 
And stick to your fast-anchored isle, oh, Johnny Bull my jo. 



APPENDIX. 403 

VOYAGE OF THE GOOD SHIP UNION. 

«Y OLIVEU WENUICLL HOLMES. 

The following poem, replete with })atriotic sentiment, was inspired by the events 
of the Civil War, in which our navy was grandly conspicuous. 

'Tis midnight : through my troubled dream 

Loud wails the tempest's cry; 
Before the gale, with tattered sail, 

A ship goes plunging by. 
What name ? where bound ? — the rocks around 

Repeat the loud halloo — 
— The good ship Lfnmi, southward bound : 

God help her and her crew ! 

And is the old flag flying still, 

That o'er your fathers flew, 
AVith bands of white and rosy light, 

And field of starry blue ? 
—Ay ! look aloft ! its folds full oft, 

Have braved the roaring blast, 
And still shall fly when from the sky 

The black typhoon has past ! 

Speak, pilot of the storm-tossed bark ! 

May I thy perils share ? 
— Oh, landsman, these are fearful seas, 

The brave alone may dare ! 
— Nay, ruler of the rebel deep. 

What matters wind or wave ? 
The rocks that wreck your reeling deck 

Will leave me naught to save ! 

Oh, landsman, art thou false or true ? 

What sign hast thou to show ? 
— The crimson stains from loyal veins, 

That hold my heart-blood's flow ! 
— Enough ! what more shall honor claim ? 

I know the sacred sign ; 
Above thy head our flag shall spread. 

Our ocean path be thine. 

The bark sails on : the Pilgrim's Cape 

Lies low along her lee. 
Whose headland crooks its anchor flukes, 

To lock the shore and sea. 



404 APPENDIX. 

No treason here ! it cost too dear 

To win this barren reahn ! 
And true and free the hands must be 

That hold the whaler's helm. 

Still on ! Manhattan's narrowing bay 

No rebel cruiser scars ; 
Her waters feel no pirate's keel, 

That flaunts the fallen stars ! 
— But watch the light on yonder height — 

Ay, pilot, have a care ! 
Some Ung'ring cloud in mist may shroud 

The Capes of Delaware ! 

Say, pilot, what this fort may be, 

Whose sentinels look down 
From moated walls that show the sea 

Their deep embrasure's frown. 
The Rebel host claim all the coast. 

But these are fiends, we know, 
Whose footprints spoil the " sacred soil," 

And this is ?— Fort Monroe ! 

The breakers roar — how bears the shore ? 

— The traitorous wrecker's hands 
Have quenched the Ijlaze that poured its rays, 

Along the Hatteras sands. 
— Ha ! say not so ! I see its glow ! 

Again the shoals display 
The beacon-light that shines by night, 

The Union Stars by day ! 

The good ship flies to milder skies. 

The wave more gently flows ; 
The softening breeze wafts o'er the seas 

The breath of Beaufort's rose. 
What fold is this the sweet winds kiss. 

Fair-striped and many-starred, 
Whose shadow palls the orphaned walls, 

The towns of Beauregard ? 

What ! heard you not Port Royal's doom ? 

How the black war-ships came 
And turned the Beaufort roses' bloom 

To redder wreaths of flame ? 



APPENDIX. 405 



IIow from Rebellion's broken reed 

We saw his emblem fall, 
As soon his cursed poison-weed 

Shall drop from Sumter's wall ? 

On, on ! Pulaski's iron hail 

Falls harmless on Tybee ! 
Her top-sails feel the fresh'ning gale — 

She strikes the open sea ; 
She rounds the point, she threads the Keys 

That guard the Land of Flowers, 
And rides at last where firm and fast 

Her own Gibraltar towers ! 

The good ship Umort's voyage is o'er, 

At anchor safe she swings, 
And loud and clear, with cheer on cheer, 

Her joyous welcome rings : 
Hurrah ! hurrah ! it shakes the wave. 

It thunders on the shore — 
One flag, one land, one heart, one hand, 

One Nation evermore ! 



BATTLE -HYMX OF THE REPUBLIC. 

BY JULIA. WAllD HOWE. 

Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord ; 
He is trampling out tlie vintage where the grapes of wrath arc stored 
He hath loosed the fateful lightnings of his terrible swift sword : 
His truth is marching on. 

I have seen him in the watch-fires of a hundred circling camps; 
They have builded him an altar in the evening dews and damps ; 
I have read his righteous sentence by the dim and flaring lamps : 
His day is marching on. 

I have read a fiery gospel writ in burnished rows of steel ; 
"As ye deal with my contemners, so with you my grace shall deal ;" 
Let the Hero, born of woman, crush the serpent with his heel : 
Since God is marching on. 



406 APPENDIX. 

He has sounded forth the trumpet that shall never call retreat ; 
He is sifting out the hearts of men before his judgment-seat ; 
Oh ! be swift, ray soul, to answer Him ! be jubilant, my feet ! 
Our God is marching on. 

In the beauties of the lilies Christ was born across the sea, 
With a glory in his bosom that transfigures you and me ; 
As he died to make men holy, let us die to make men free : 
While God is marching on. 



INDEX. 



Alabama, career and fate of the, 324- 
327; damage done by the, paid for 
by Great Britain, 32S; destroys 
the Hatteras, 331. 

Albemarle, the ram, destroyed, 352. 

Alfred, lii'&t naval flag raised over 
the, 17; cruise of the, with the 
Raleigh, 30; sails for France, and 
captured, 32. 

Algehine pirates and American 
commerce, 64. 

Allen, William Henry, commands 
the Argm, 146 ; death of, 148. 

Alliance, attempted mutiny on the, 
37; cruise of the, under Barney, 
51; sold, 63. 

America, 74 guns, presented to the 
French, 61. 

American Commekce, expansion 
of, 63. 

American Frigates launched in 
1814, 233. 

American Navy, the, British con- 
tempt for; prompt action of, 101. 

American naval victories, effects 
of, on the British people, 257. 

American Navy in the West In- 
dies, 68. 

American Perry, 398. 

American Privateers, destructive 
career of the, 277; ocean swarm- 
ing with, in 1813, 265 ; ettect of ex- 
ploits of, 277 ; history of, 200-277 ; 
harvest of, 261. 

American Squadron on Lake 
Champlain, 24. 

American Squadrons in the West 
Indies, 70. 



American War-vessels afloat on 
the ocean (1813), 173. 

Americans declare their indepen- 
dence, 10. 

Andrea Doria, successful cruise of 
the, 18 ; career of the— burnt in 
the Delaware, 25. 

Appendix, naval songs, 387 — 406. 

Argm, cruise of the, 146 ; lands Min- 
ister Crawford in France ; exploits 
of, in British waters, 147; captured 
by the Pelican, 148. 

Arkansas Post, expedition against, 
328. 

Arkansas, the ram, destroyed, 322. 

Arnold, Benedict, naval command- 
er on Lake Champlain, 24. 

Asp, fate of the, 145. 

Atlanta, the ram, captured, 339. 

B. 

Bailey, Joseph, dams the Red Riv- 
er, 342. 

Bailey, Theodorus, in battle on the 
Mississippi, 310. 

Bainbridge and the Retaliation, 
captured by a French cruiser, 69; 
deceives the French commander, 
70; carries tribute to Algiers, 76; 
treatment of, by the Dey, 77; the 
Sultan's tirman to — humbles the 
Dey, 78; in command of the Con- 
stitution ; s-aUs on a cruise, 128; 
fights and conquers the Java, 130; 
receives honors, 133, 

Baltic Fleet, the, convoyed by 
British ships, 43. 

Baltimore Clippers, 260. 

Baltimore, British search of the, 
68. 



408 



INDEX. 



Banks, N, P., commands the Red 
River Expedition, 340. 

Barbaky Powers, the, humbled, 
79. 

Barbart States, the, 88 ; rulers of 
the, humbled, 279-283. 

Barclay, Commodore, British com- 
mander on Lake Erie, 185, 189, 
190; mentioned in a song, 194. 

Barney, Josliua, exploit of, 50; 
made captain — cruise of, 51 ; ex- 
jiloits of, on tlie Hycler Alt, 53 ; 
commands the Baleigh, 36; com- 
mands a flotilla of gun-boats on 
Chesapeake Ba}-, 241 ; operations 
of, in the Patuxent, 242; in battle 
ofBladensburg,244. 

Barron, James, commands a squad- 
ron in the ]\Icditerranean, 85 ; 
commands the Chesapeake, 92 ; sus- 
pended from the service, 94. 

Barry, John, 16, 18 ; commands the 
Effingha)n,^2\ commands the i?a- 
leigh, 35. 

Barton, William, captures General 
Prescott, 59. 

Baton Rouge, capture of, 34. 

Battle Hymn of the Republic, 
406. 

Battle of the Kegs, 29. 

Bayous near Vicksburg, naval oper- 
ations on, 328. 

Beauregard's despatch to Rich- 
mond from Island No. 10, 305; 
leaves Island No. 10, 306. 

Bell, Henry H., in battle below 
New Orleans, 310. 

BiDDLE, Nicholas, 15, 18; perishes 
with the HaufMph, 28. 

BiDDLE, James, commands the Hor- 
net; captures the Pe}ig?iin — honors 
bestowed upon, 254. 

Big Sandy Creek, battle in, 215. 

Blakeley, Johnston, commands the 
Wasp,2o6; fate of, and the Wasp, 
239. 

Blockade of American Coasts 
ordered, 225 ; extends from the 
Delaware to Nantucket, 229; of 
Southern ports, 358. 



Blockade Runners, business and 
fate of the, 359; losses of the, 
360. 

Blockaders repelled in Delaware 
Bay, 226. 

Blockading Squadron in 1861, 
295; in 1862,301; at Charleston, 
attacked, 334-336. 

Blockading Vessels, first appear- 
ance of, 225 ; in Delaware and 
Chesapeake bays, 226. 

Blue Ilouiitam Valley, capture of the, 
57. 

Blyth, S., commands the JSoxer — 
death of, 149. 

Board of Associated Loyalists, 
60. 

BoGGS, C. S., in battle below New 
Orleans, 312. 

Bonaparte, Louisiana purchased 
from, 75. 

Bo7ihomnie likhard, crew of tlie, 40; 
battle of, with the Serapis, 44. 

Boston, port of, closed, 5. 

Boyle, Thomas, the bold privateers- 
man; exploits of, in the Comet, 
265, 266; career of, in the Chas- 
aeur — proclamation of, 267. 

British Commerce, suffering of, 
during tlie Revolution, 62. 

British Cruisers in American wa- 
ters, 90-93, 97. 

British Fleet on Lake Erie, 186. 

British Navy and the American 
compared, 11. 

British Outrage at Gibraltar, 89; 
at New York, 90; in the West In- 
dies, 68, 69; condoned, 69. 

British Plan for dividing the 
American coloni-sts, 23. 

British Squadron on Lake Onta- 
rio, 175; at Oswego, 211. 

British Troops leave Boston, 10; 
retreat from Plattsburg, 219. 

British Vessels captured by the 
Americans in 1776, 26. 

Broke, P. V. B., challenge of, 138; 
wounded — honors bestowed upon, 
145. 

Bi-ookhjn, the, 290. 



INDEX. 



409 



Brother Jonathan's Epistle to 
John Bull, 401. 

BuDD, Lieutenant, bravery of, 142. 

Bunker's Hill, battle of, 10. 

Burlington Heights, expedition 
against, 205. 

BuRNSiDE, E. A., commands expe- 
dition against Roanoke Island, 
301. 

Burrows, W., commands the E>iter- 
prise — deatli of, 148 ; memory of, 
honored, 150. 

Bushnell's torpedo, 363; opera- 
tions of, 363. 

Butler, Benjamin F.,in command 
of the Department of the Gulf, 
308; below New Orleans, 313; at 
Fort Fisher, 355. 



C. 

Cabinet Ministers, 
specting a navy, 100, 



folly of, re- 
constructed by troops. 



Canal, 
306. 

Cabot, capture of the, 28. 

Caramalli, Hamet, rightful ruler 
of Tunis, 87. 

CaroHdelet, the, 306. 

Chadwick, Lieutenant-commander, 
on European training -sliips and 
Greenwich Hospital School, 374; 
and training-ships, 383. 

Champlin, Sniling-master, fires the 
first and last gun in the battle of 
Lake Erie, 190. 

Chandler, Ralph, cruise of, among 
torpedoes, 369; on the torpedo as 
a weapon of defence, 370 ; and 
training-sliips, 383. 

Charleston, attempt to capture, 
336, 340. 

Charleston Harbor, Civil War be- 
gun in, 289 ; condition of, for de- 
fence, 336. 

C/iassewr (privateer), exploits of the, 
267. 

Chaumont, Le Ray, and Jones's 
fleet, 40. 

Chauncey, Isaac, commands navy 
on Lake Champlain ; fijst opera- 

18=^ 



tions of, 179 ; winters at Sackett's 
Harbor, 180; draws Yeo from 
York and compels him to fight, 
207 ; captures British vessels and 
aids Wilkinson, 208; squadron of, 
on Lake Ontario; blockades tlie 
British squadron at Kingston, 
222 ; biography of, 224. 

Chesapeake, arrival of the, in Boston 
harbor — Lawrence in command of 
the — " unlucky" character of the, 
138; crew of the, 140; fights the 
Shannon, and is captured, 141. 

Chemjoeake and Leopard, affair of the, 
92-94. 

Chesapeake and Shannon, fight be- 
tween the, 141-145. 

Civil War, the, 289-360. 

CocKBURN, Sir George, commands 
blockading forces, 225-227 ; con- 
ducts a marauding expedition to 
Havre - de - Grace, 226 ; plunders 
the Southern coasts, 229; urges 
the British general to burn Wash- 
ington, 244. 

Comet, cruise of the, under Boyle, 
265. 

Common Sailors and man-of-war's 
men compared, 379. 

Concord, military stores at, 7. 

Confederate Privateers, 323- 
328; built in Great Britain, 323. 

Confederate Vessels, destruction 
or capture of, at Elizabeth City, 
301. 

Confederates, the, form a civil 
government, 294. 

Confiance, Downie's flag-ship, 216. 

Congress authorizes the Crea- 
tion of a Navy — names of ves- 
sels, 14. 

Connor, Commodore, assists in the 
capture of Vera Cruz, 284. 

Constellation, under Truxtun, in the 
West Indies, 68; captures the In- 
surgente, 70; vanquishes La Ven- 
geance, 72; the Tripolitans and 
the, 79; at Norfolk, 227. 

Constellation and J)isurgente, a song, 
391. 



410 



INDEX. 



Consiitntlon and Ouerriere, 393. 

Const itutiu)i, the, at Tripoli, 81 ; first 
cruise of, under Hull — chased by 
a British squadron, 103-107 ; sec- 
ond cruise of, under Hull, 108- 
111 ; ■ vanquishes the Gnerriere, 
109-111; cruise of, under Stewart 
—chased into Marblehead, -246 ; in 
European waters, 247; captures 
the Cijnne and Levant. 248; fate of 
the prizes of, 2'19; a plea for the, 
251. 

Constitution and Java, battle between 
the, 131; effect of the battle be- 
tween the, and the Java, 134. 

Continental Navy, names of ves- 
sels of the, 60. 

CoNYNGHAM, Captain, cruises of, 20, 
23 ; imprisoned and released, 20. 

CoRNWALLis, surrender of, 52. 

Countess of Scarbo)-ou(/J(, the, convoy- 
ing- the Baltic fleet, 43 ; surrender 
of the, 45. 

Ckaney Island fortified, 227; bat- 
tle at, 228. 

Crowninshield, Lieutenant - com- 
mander, and trainino;-ships, 383. 

Cruisers, American, first, that went 
to sea, 16. 

CrsHiNG, Lieutenant, destroys the 
ram Albemarle, 352. 

D. 

Dale a>d the Barbary Powers, 
79. 

Davis, C. H., commands at the capt- 
ure of Memphis, 307. 

Davis, Jefferson, commissions pri- 
vateers, 294. 

Davis, John, exploits of, 341 ; re- 
ceives rewards for bravery, 353. 

Dayton, Elias, and the Bine Jfoun- 
tain Valley, 57. 

Decatur, Stephen, Sen., captures 
Le Croyahle, 67. 

Decatur, Stephen, Jr., in the har- 
bor of Tripoli, 81 ; promotion of, 
82 ; captures the Macedonian, 126 ; 
honors awarded to, 127; effect of 
the capture of the Macedonian ,\2S ; 



in command of a squadron, 252 ; 
cruise of, soon ended, 254; hum- 
bles the rulers of the Barbary 
States, 279 ; sketch of, 281. 

Decatur, cruise of the, 271. 

Decatur's Vessels blockaded at 
New Loudon, 230. 

De Grasse assists the Americans, 
35. 

Delaware, ship -building on the, 
28; British fleet in the, 29; Amer- 
ican vessels take refui;;e in the, 30. 

D'EsTAiNG commands a French 
fleet and disappoints the Ameri- 
cans, 34, 35. 

Detroit, surrender of, 130. 

Detroit, the, Barclay's flag -ship in 
the battle of Lake Erie, 189, 192. 

Dey of Algiers, the, 390. 

Dix's Famous Order, 293. 

Dolpliin, capture of the, 226; cruise 
of the, 262, 267 ; captures the Hebe, 
267. 

DowNES, Lieutenant, with Porter 
in the Pacific — finds a post-oflSce 
among the Galapagos, 155; Por- 
ter's chief lieutenant, 156; com- 
mands the Essex, Jr., in the battle 
at Valparaiso, 163. 

DowNiE, sent to command the Brit- 
ish vessels on Lake Champlain, 
216; death of, 219. 

Druid, the, a convoy, 30. 

DupoNT, S. F., commands expedi- 
tion to P<K-t Royal Sound, 229; 
on the coast of Florida, 308; com- 
mands a fleet in an attack on Fort 
Sumter, 336. 



Facfle, capture of the, 271. 
Eastport captured, 233. 
Eaton, William, expedition of, 

against Tripoli, 87-. 
EcKFORD, Henry, builds vessels at 

Sackett's Harbor, 133, 197. 
Effingham, the, in the Delaware, 32. 
Ellet's Ram Squadron, 307. 
Elliott, Jesse D., exploits of, near 

Buffalo, 180-183; joins Perry's 



INDEX. 



411 



fleet— in the battle of Lake Erie, 
189; honors awarded to, 194. 

England's Starving Peopi,e HELP- 
ED, 360. 

English, Commodore, and train- 
ino'-ships, 383. 

Enterprise, cruise of the— battle of 
the, with the Boxer, 149 ; cruise of 
the, with the liattlemiake, 152. 

Ericsson, John, constructs the 
Mouitor, 316. 

Essex, Porter's first cruise in the, 
107 ; captures the Alert, 108 ; long- 
cruise of the, 152-168; in the Pa- 
cific Ocean, 154-167; at Marque- 
sas Islands, 159-162; combats the 
P/ioebe and Cherub at Valparaiso, 
163. 

Evans, Captain, leaves the Chesa- 
peake, 138. 

Evans, Commander, and training- 
ships, 383. 

Expedition to close the port of 
Mobile, 342. 



rARRAGUT,D. G., child -midshipman 
under Porter — in command in the 
Pacific Ocean, 158 ; has a fist-fight 
for his property, 167; in the expe- 
dition against New Orleans, 309- 
314; attempts to cut a canal at 
Vicksburg, 321 ; runs by batteries, 
321 ; at siege of Port Hudson, 331, 
333; in Mo^hile Bay, 342. 

Fishing for Torpedoes, 368. 

Fleet on Lake Erie built, 183. 

Floating Mine, explosion ol', near 
a British man of- war, 366. 

Florida, the, captured, 323; sunk, 
324. 

FooTE, A. H., in command of a gun- 
boat ftotilla, 298; at Forts Henry 
and Donelson, 302; at Columbus 
and Island No. 10, 304. 

Fort Donelson, attack of gun- 
boats upon — capture of, 302. 

Fort Fisher, expeditions against, 
35-^357; composition of the ar- 
mament against, 353; first attack 



on, 354; second attack on, 356; 
capture of, 357. 

Fort George, expedition against, 
200. 

Fort Henry, attack of gun -boats 
on, 302. 

Fort Pillow, siege of, 307. 

Fort Sumter, attempt to re-enforce 
and supply, 293. 

Forts Gaines and Morgan capt- 
ured, 350. 

Fox, Gustavus Vasa, tries to re-en- 
force Fort Sumter, 293. 

Franklin, Dr., and blank naval 
commissions, 20. 

FitEEDOM OF A CiTY (uotc), 115. 

French Fleet in the Delaware, 34. 

French and English Cruisers, 
conduct of, 66. 

Frigates, construction of six, or- 
dered—officers chosen to com- 
mand the, 65. 

Frolic, battle of the, with the Wasp, 
120. 

Fulton Hie First, desciiption of the, 
223. 

G. 

Galveston, surrender of, to Com- 
mander Renshaw, 322; taken by 
the Confederates — port of, sealed 
up, 331. 

Gauges, first cruise of the, 67. 

General Armstrong, cruise of the, 
269; brave defence of the, at Fay- 
al, 273; beneficial detention of 
British squadron by the, 274. 

George Griswold, merciful errand of 
the, 361. 

George III., accession of — prime- 
minister of, 2. 

GiLLMORE, Q. A., commands the 
Department of the South, 339. 

Globe, cruise of the, 262, 272. 

GoiN, John, projects a floating na- 
val school, 376. 

GoLDSBOROUGH, L. M., Commands 
naval expedition against Roanoke 
Island, 301. 

Governor Tompkins, cruise of the, 
265. 



412 



INDEX. 



Grand Gulf, batteries at, attacked, 
332. 

Great Britain revises its S3stem 
of search, 89. 

Great Cable transported b}^ land, 
215. 

Gregory, Lieutenant, exploits of, 
among the Thousand Islands, 221. 

Guerriere and ConsUtuiio7i, battle of 
tlie, 109-111. 

Gun-boats, construction of, autlior- 
ized — ridiculed, 96; proposed in 
1814— flotilla of, on Western riv- 
ers, 297. 

H. 

Halifax, British squadron at, 102. 

Hampden, the, a Massachusetts pri- 
vateer, 37. 

Hampton, captured by the British, 
228. 

Hampton Roads, British frigates 
enter, 227. 

Hancock, capture of the, by the Iiai7i- 
bow, 28. 

Harpy, the, captures the Frbicess 
Elizabeth, 272. 

Harrington, Jonathan, fifer at Lex- 
ington, 8. 

Hatteras, expedition against forts 
at, 296 ; capture of forts at, 297. 

Miqhjlyer (privateer), cruise of the, 
263. 

Highflyer, the, and Commodore 
Rodgers, 170. 

HiLLYAR, Captain, treatment of Por- 
ter by, 163. 

HiNMAN, Eiisha,30, 32. 

Hopkins, Esck, cliief naval com- 
mander, 15 ; first cruise of— capt- 
ures munitions of war and vessels, 
16; dismissed from the service, 
17. 

Hopkins, John B., 15; commands a 
squadron — cruise of, 38. 

HoPKiNSON, Francis, author of the 
"Battle of the Kegs," 29. 

Hornet, the, blockades the Bonne Ci- 
toyenne, 134; fights and conquers 
the Peacock, 135 ; chased by a heavy 
English ship, 255. 



Hornet and Peacock, battle between 
the, 135; caricatured, 137. 

Hornet and Rnyuin, battle between 
the, 254. 

Horse Island, British troops land 
on, 203. 

Hudson, Captain, commands the 
Jia)iger, 25. 

Hudson, the, a school-ship, 376. 

Hull, Isaac, commands the Gmsti- 
tution, 111-115; anecdote of Dacres 
and, 115 ; lionors awarded to, 115 ; 
importance of victory of — eftect 
of victory of, in England, 117; 
comments of the English Press 
on victory of, 118. 

Hurricane on Lake Ontario, 205. 

Hydcr AH, victory achieved by the, 
53. 

Hyler, Adam, and whale-boat war- 
fare, 57. 

I. 

Independence of the United 
States acknowledged, 62. 

/;<f?w?<o?fl, the, passes Vicksburg bat- 
teries, 329; destruction of the, 
330. 

Intrepid, history of the, 81, 84; vic- 
tims of the, at Tripoli, 84. 

Iron-clad Boats, construction of, 
297. 

Island No. 10 attacked, 304; capt- 
uied, 306; prisoners and spoils 
taken at, 306, 

J. 
Japan, peaceful expedition to, 285; 

result of the expedition to, 286. 
Java, the, captured by the Constitu- 

tion, 131; eflPect of the capture of 

the, 134. 
Jefferson, Thomas, defends i^riva- 

teeriug, 259. 
Jefferson, President, reduces the 

force of the navy, 76; policy of, 

toward the army and navy, 94. 
John Adams, cruise of the, 234 ; burnt 

in the Penobscot, 235. 
Jones, Jacob, commands the Wasp, 



INDEX. 



413 



119; fights and conquers the Frol- 
ic — loses his vessel luid prize, 121 ; 
honors awarded to, 123. 

Jones, John Paul, 15; raises the 
first American naval flag, 17; suc- 
cesslul cruise of, 18; commands 
the Alfred, 19 ; first appearance of, 
in European waters — exploits of, 
in Biitish waters — Earl of Selkirk 
plundered by crew of, 33 ; capt- 
ures tlie Drake, 34; in command 
of a squadron, 39 ; on the coast of 
Scotland, 41-43; fights and con- 
quers the /S'errtpis, 44 ; remarks of, 
concerning Captain Pearson — 
honors bestowed upon, 46; sub- 
sequent career of, 48. 

Jones, Thomas Ap Catesby, com- 
mands flotilla on Lake Borgne, 
278. 

Jones and Victory, 397. 

K. 

Kearsarge, the, destroys the Alaba- 
ma, 327. 

Kemp, cruise of the, 276. 

Kilty, Chancellor, parodies a Brit- 
ish song, 258. 

KiNNisoN, David, one of the Bos- 
ton Tea-party, 5. 

Lafayette in the Alliance, 37. 

Lake Bougne, flotilla - battle on, 
278. 

Lake Champlain, naval battle on, 
24; naval operations on, 209 ; loss 
of American vessels on, 210 ; bat- 
tle on, 216-220. 

Lake Euie, battle of, 190-192. 

Laikd, a Confederate ship-builder, 
323. 

Landais, Captain, in command of 
the Alliance — narrow escape of, 
37; conduct of, 40, 43, 45. 

Lawkence, James, in command 
of the Hornet, 134; fights and 
conquers the Peacock, 135; hon- 
ors awarded to, 137 ; in command 
of the CJiempeake, 138; accepts 



Broke's challenge, 139 ; mortally 
wounded — last words of, 142; 
death of, 145. 

Laivrence, the. Perry's flag-ship on 
Lake Erie, 191. 

Lawrence (privateer), cruise of the, 
276. 

League of States, 63. 

Leander (a British ship), outrage by 
the, 90. 

Lee, S. p., at Vicksburg, 321. 

Lewis, Commodore, operations of 
flotilla of, in Long Island Sound, 
230 ; captures the Eagle, 271. 

Lexington and Concokd, skir- 
mishes at, 8. 

Lexington and Edward, battle be- 
tween the, 18. 

Lincoln's Administration begun, 
287. 

LiPPiNCOTT, Captain, attempted 
capture of, by Hyler, 58. 

Little Belt and President, affair of the, 
97. 

London Trading, 56. 

Lottery (privateer), desperate battle 
of the, 268. 

Lovs^RY, Captain, and training-ships, 
383. 

Luce, S. B., account of English and 
American training systems, by, 
371-383 ; active in promoting the 
training system, 383. 

Ludlow, Lieutenant, 142; death of, 
145. 

Lynn Haven Bay, British squad- 
ron in, 90. 

M. 

Macdonough, Tliomas, commands 
on Lake Champlain, 208 ; fits out 
armed vessels, 210 ; commands a 
squadron on Lake Champlain, 216; 
prayer of, 217 ; victory of, 219 ; 
honors awarded to, 221. 

3Iacedonia?i, the, captured by the 
United States, 126; reception of, 
at New York, 127. 

Mackinaw, naval expedition 
against, 215. 



414 



INDEX. 



Macomb, Alexander, commands 
troops in battle of Plattsburg, 216; 
honors awarded to, 221. 

Madison, the, launched at Sackett's 
Harbor, 183; in battle on Lake 
Ontario, 207. 

Manly, John, commissioned cap- 
tain — crniscs in the Lee and Han- 
cock, 13; in command of the Hague 
— cruise of, in tlie West Indies, 
53. 

Marine Committee, members of 
the, 14. 

Markiner, William, and whale-boat 
warfare — exploits of, 57. 

Mason and Seidell, capture of, 
303. 

McCall, commands the Enterprise 
in action, 149; medal awarded to, 
150. 

Medals of Honor, first bestow- 
ment of, 351. 

Meigs, R. J., expedition of, to Sag- 
Harbor, 58. 

Memphis, capture of, 307. 

Merrimac, raid of the, in Hampton 
Roads, 315; destruction of the, 
321. 

Minnesota, the, attacked by the Mer- 
rimac, 316 ; saved by the Monitor, 
318; a training-ship, 383. 

Minor Operations on Lake Onta- 
rio and the St. Lawrence, 221. 

Mississippi, the, burnt, 332. 

Mobile Bay, severe battle in, 345- 
349; Confederate naval force in, 
destroyed, 350. 

Mobile captured, 357. 

3I(mitor, the, cruises at Hampton 
Roads, 316; tights and conquers 
the Merrimac, 319; lost, 321. 

Morocco, Emperor of, and Com- 
modore Preble, 81. 

Morris, Charles, commands the 
John Adams, 234; biograi^hy of, 
235. 

Morris, R. v., commands a squad- 
ron in the Mediterranean, 79 ; dis- 
missed from the service by the 
President without trial, 80. 



N. 

Nashville, destruction of the, 334. 

National Constitution formed, 
64. 

Nautical Education, 371. 

Nautilus, the, the first and last ves- 
sel captured during the war (1813- 
'15), 102, 257. 

Naval Academy at Annapolis, 371. 

Naval Actions, brief time employ- 
ed in, 257. 

Naval Apprentice System, 371 ; 
plan of, proposed and tried in 
England, 372. 

Naval Battle on Lake Ontario, 
207. 

Naval Battle on the Mississippi, 
310-312. 

Naval Commanders alarmed by 
torpedoes, 280. 

Naval Commissions first issued, 12. 

Naval Flags, the first displayed, 
17 ; character of, 18. 

Naval Monument to the slain at 
Tripoli, 84. 

Naval Officers, resignations and 
dismissals of, 296. 

Naval Operations on Lake Cham- 
plain (1814), 216, 219. 

Naval Power on the northern 
lakes, 97. 

Naval Stores, attempt to capture, 
at Oswego Falls, 211. 

Navies of Great Britain and 
THE United States compared, 
100. 

Navy, two kinds, 1 ; the young, 
popularity of, 67, 74; increase of, 
authorized, 96, 99, 134; the, in 
1810,97; a plea for a strong, 99; 
assists in the war with Mexico 
and the conquest of California, 
284; alwa^vs the friend of com- 
merce, 286; strength and location 
of, at the beginning of the Civil 
W^u-, 290, 295; extraordinary ser- 
vices of, 358. 

Navy- yard at Gosport, destruction 
of property at, 293. 



INDEX, 



415 



Navy-yards established, 98. 

New England aroused, 9. 

New England Privateers, suc- 
cess of, 19. 

New Madrid, capture of, 304. 

New Orleans, expedition against, 
308 ; panic at, 313 ; capture of, 314. 

New Orleatis, tlie, constructed at 
Saclv-ett's Harbor, 224. 

New York Privateers, 269. 

Niagara, the, in battle of Lalvc Erie, 
191. 

Nicholson, James, commands tlie 
Trumbull in a desperate battle, 50; 
fights the Iris and General Monk 
with the Trumbull, and is capt- 
ured, 52. 

Nicholson, Lieutenant, in cliarge 
of the Epervier, 239. 

Nicholson, Samuel, cruise of, in 
the Deane, 52. 

Non-importation Agreement, 7. 

Nonsuch, daring act of the, 264. 

O. 

Officers active in promoting the 
training system, 383. 

Old Iron fiides, name given to the Con- 
stitution, 133. 

Oneida, the, on Lake Ontario, 175; 
at Sackett's Harbor, 177. 

Osage and Lexington in the Red Riv- 
er, 341. 

Oswego, attack upon, 212, 



Paulding, Hiram, and the Gosport 

Navy-yard, 293, 
Had Jones, cruise of the, 264. 
Peacock, the, captures the Epervier, 

239; in European waters, 240 ; in 

the Eastern Ocean, 255; captures 

the Nautilus, 256. 
Peacock ii\\(\Epervier, battle between 

the, 239. 
Pearson, Captain, commands the 

ISerajns, 45. 
Penobscot, expedition to the, 48 ; 

British fleet at mouth of the— the 

John Adams bnrnt in the, 233. 



Perry, O. H., goes to Sackett's Har- 
bor and Presque Isle — fleet built 
for, 183 ; goes to assist Chauncey 
in the attack on Fort George, 184; 
impatience of, 185; Harrison and, 
186; commands in the battle of 
Lake Erie, 189-193; despatch of, 
to Harrison, 192 ; importance of 
victory of, 193; honors awarded 
to, 194 ; at the capture of Fort 
George, 200. 

Petrel (Confederate privateer), the, 
destroyed, 294. 

Philadelphia, the, captured at Trip- 
oli, 81 ; destruction of the, 82. 

Phcebe and Essex, combat between 
the, 163. 

Plgot, the, captured by Talbot, 37. 

Pike, Z. M., death of, at York, 
199. 

Pirates in the West Indies, 283. 

Plattsburg, land-forces at (1814), 
216; naval battle at, 217; battle 
at, seen from the Vermont shore, 
219. 

Poictiers, the, captures the Wasp and 
Frolic, 121 ; guarding the entrance 
to New York Bay, 230. 

Pope, John, captures New Madrid, 
304. 

Porter, David, commands the £s- 
s<;x, 128, 15;i-167 ; honors awarded 
to, 168; death of, 169. 

Porter, D. D., in battle below New 
Orleans, 308-313; at Vicksburg, 
321; in rear of Vicksburg, 328; 
sham gun -boat of, 329; fleet of, 
runs past Vicksburg, 330; at Grand 
Gulf, 332 ; assists in the siege of 
Vicksburg— commands gun-boats 
on the Red River, 340 ; on dam- 
ming the Red River, 341; com- 
mands naval expedition against 
Fort Fisher, 353, ^57. 

Port Royal Sound, expedition to, 
299; battle at entrance to, 300. 

Portugal and Algiers, 64. 

Potomac, naval operations on the, 
296. 

Powder-ship at Fort Fisher, 3.54. 



416 



INDEX. 



Prater of a Scotch pastor agaiust 
Paul Jones, 41. 

Preble, Edward, commands a 
squadron in the Mediterranean, 
80; exploits of, there, 80-8-4; re- 
lieved, and honors awarded to, 84, 
85. 

Prescott, General, captured by 
Barton, 59. 

Fre.si<kiit, the, and iheBelvidera, 101 ; 
cruise of the, in command of De- 
catur — chased bj' a British squad- 
ron, 252; running fight with the 
Midymion^ 253 ; surrender of the, 
254. 

President and Endymio7i, battle be- 
tween the, 258. 

Preddent and Little Belt, affair of the, 
97. 

Prevost, Sir George, commands ex- 
pedition against Sacliett's Har- 
bor, 203. 

Prince of NeiifcMtel fights armed 
boats, 275. 

Privateers, early American, 12; 
squadron of, from Baltimore, 
261. 

Privateers and privateering, Jef- 
ferson's defence of — Congress au- 
thorizes, 259. 

Privateers and transports, 12. 

Providence, cruise of the, 32. 

Q. 

Queen, of the West, the ram, 328. 



Raleigh, cruise of the, 31 ; sails 

from France witli the Alfred, and 

chased, 32. 
Randolph, cruise of the, 27; fate of 

the, 28. 
Ranger, cY\\\iQ of the, 25; in British 

waters, under Paul Jones, 33. 
Eathbtjrne, Captain, commands 

the Providence, 32. 
Red River, expedition up the, 340- 

342; battle on the, 341; passage 

of the rapids of the, by gun-boats, 

342. 



Reid, Samuel C, commands the 
General Armstrong — brave de- 
fence of his vessel by, 273 ; hon- 
ors bestowed upon, 274. 

Reprisal, cruise of the, 19. 

Revenge, successful cruise of the, 
23. 

Revenue Collectors roughly han- 
dled in Boston, 5. 

Revenue-cutters in danger, 290. 

Rhode Island fits out armed ves- 
sels, 12. 

Roanoke Island, an expedition 
against, 301. 

RoDGERS, Captain John, captures 
the Atlanta, 338. 

RoDGERS, Commodore John, before 
Tunis, 87; with a squadron at 
New York, 101 ; long cruise of, in 
the President, \&^-^i•2■, uses Brit- 
ish signals with effect, 170 ; capt- 
ures the Highflyer, 170-172; sec- 
ond cruise in the President, 112; 
honors bestowed upon, 173. 

RODGERS AND VICTORY, 393. 

Rossie (privateer), exploits of the, 
261. 

S. 

Sabine Pass, operations at, 331. 

Sackett's Harbor, defence of, 177; 
land and naval force at (1813) — 
vessels builtat,194; British squad- 
ron before, 202; destruction of 
property at — British flee from, 
204 ; blockaded, 213 ; military force 
at, 2:24. 

Sailor's Address, the, 888. 

St. Lawrence (Britisli), the, on Lake 
Ontario, 223. 

St. Lawrence (S'^iiXow^^), the, destroys 
the Petrel (privateer), 295. 

Salem, chief home of privateers, 
260. 

Saltonstall, Captain, commands 
the Trumbull, 28. 

Saratoga (sloop-of- war), cruise of 
the, 50. 

Saratoga, Macdonougli's flag -ship, 
216. 

Saratoga (privateer), the, 265, 268. 



INDEX. 



417 



Saucy Jack {■prixaieev), cruise of the, 
375. 

Savannah (Confederate privateer), 
capture of the, 2^^. 

School-ships, 377. 

Scowge (privateer), cruise of the, 
270. 

Search and Impkessment, 66. 

Selkirk, Earl of, house of, plunder- 
ed, 34. 

Serapis, the, convo3's the Baltic fleet, 
43 ; surrenders to the Bonhomme 
Richard., 45. 

Shacloio (privateer), cruise of the, 
263. 

Shenandoah (Confederate privateer), 
career of the, 327, 328. 

Shiloh, National victory at, 306. 

Shufeldt, Commodore, and train- 
ing system, 383. 

Siege of Plattsburg, 400. 

Skerrett, Captain, and training 
system, 383. 

Sloat, Commodore, captures Mon- 
terey, 284. 

Smith, Melancthon, commands the 
J\Iississip2M, 322. 

SOiMERS, Captain, perishes at Trip- 
oli, 84. 

Song, 389. 

South Sea Exploring Expedi- 
tion, 283. 

South-west Pass, blockading ves- 
sels at, attaelvcd, 298. 

Stamp Act and Stamps, 4. 

Star of the West, the, fired upon, 
289. 

Stevens's Floating-battery, 296. 

Stewart, Charles, commands the 
Conditution — sketch of, 246 ; capt- 
ures the Plcton, 246 ; captures the 
Cyane and Levant, 248 ; public 
honors awarded to, 249. 

Stirling, Lord, and the Blue Moun- 
tain Valley, 57. 

Stockton, Commodore, assists in 
the capture of Los Angeles, 284. 

Sumter, Fort, fierce engagement 
near, 337; "amass of ruins," 339; 
defenders of, 340. 



Superior, the, waiting for guns and 

cable, 213. 
Surprise (brig), cruise of the, 20. 



Talbot, Silas, exploits of, in Rhode 
Island, 36, 37. 

Tarbbll, Captain, commands ves- 
sels in Elizabeth River, 228. 

Tea, destruction of, in Boston har- 
bor, 5. 

Tecumseh, the, destroyed by a torpe- 
do, 346. 

Ten7tessee, the ram, 345 ; terrible bat- 
tle Avith, and capture of, 349. 

Terry, Alfred H., commands an 
expedition against Fort Fisher, 
355. 

Thatcher, Admiral, assists in the 
capture of Mobile, 357. 

Thompson, Captain, first command- 
er of the lialeigh, 30 ; dismissed 
from the service, 32. 

Timbey, Theodore R., invents the 
3Ionitor turret, 316. 

Torpedoes in Naval Warfare, 
362; Fulton's, 363 ; operations of 
Fulton's, in England and Ameri- 
ca, 364; the, and the steamboat, 
365 ; effect of the explosion of a, 
367. 

Torpedoes in the Civil War, 367. 

Training - ships in commission 
(1880), 383. 

Treaty of Alliance with France, 
31. 

Treaty of Peace (1814), 278. 

Tribute paid to the Dey of Algiers, 
65. 

Tripoli, Preble's attack upon, 83; 
ruler of, humbled by Decatur, 
281. 

Troops, British, in Boston, 5. 

Truxtun, Thomas, ordered to seize 
French cruisers, 67; captures the 
Inmrgente and vanquishes the La 
Vengeance — honors awarded to, 
72. 

Tunis, Preble's attack upon, 82; 
Bashaw of, humbled, 87. 



4]: 



INDEX. 



U. 

United States — how they came to 
exist, 2-6. 

United States, the, coniinaudetl by 
Barry in the West Indies, 67 ; con- 
quers the Macedonian, 125. 

Upshur, Captain, and training sys- 
tem, 383. 

V. 

Vergennes, Count de, 31. 

Vessels added to tlie navy, 295. 

Vessels-of-war built at Sacliett's 
Harbor (1813, 14), 211. 

Virginia, capture of the, 33. 

Voyage of the Good Ship "Un- 
ion," 403. 

W. 

Wadsworth, Lieutenant, perished 
at Tripoli, 84. 

Wagner, Fort, captured, 339. 

Walke, Captain, commands tlie Ca- 
rondelet, 306. 

War for Independence, 175. 

Warren, Admiral, in Chesapealce 
Bi.y, 227. 

Warrington, Lewis, commands the 
Feacock, 239. 

War, dechiration of, against Eng- 
land, preparations for, 100. 

War Spirit aroused, 93, 98. 

War with France ended, 75. 

War with Mexico, 284. 

Washington, public buildings at, 
destroyed, 244. 

Washington takes command of the 

Continental army, 10. 
Wasp and Hornet,hm\t on the Dela- 
ware, 30. 
Wasp, cruise of the, under Jones, 
119-121; vanquishes the Frolic, 
120. 

Wasp on a Frolic (caricature), 
123. 

Waters, Midshipman, deatli of, 149. 

Weitzel, Gen., at Fort Fisher, 354. 



Wellington's Veterans, 215. 

Welles, Gideon, Secretary of the 
Navy, ;i90. 

Whale-boat warfare, 56-60. 

Whipple, Abraham, and British of- 
ficer, 11; commands Rhode Isl- 
and vessels, 12; appointed cap- 
tain, 15; commands the Columbus, 
18; commands the Ravger and 
Queen of France, 38 ; flotilla of, at 
Charleston, destroyed, 50. 

White Haven visited by Paul 
Jones, 33. 

Whiting, Commodore, :;nd training 
system, 383. 

Wickes, Captain, cruise and ship- 
wreck of, 20. 

Wilkes, Charles, captures Mason 
and Slidell, 302. 

Williams, Captain, in expedition 
to the Penobscot, 48. 

Williams, of South Carolina, op- 
poses a navy, 94. 

Wilmington, port of, closed to 
blockade-runners, 357. 

WiNSLOW, Jolm A., commands the 
Kearsarge — destroys the Alabatua, 
327. 

Woolsey, Melancthon, commands 
the Oneida, 175; flotilla of, on 
Lake Ontario, 23; attacked in 
Big Sandy Creek, 214. 

WouDEN, John L., commands the 
Monitor in Hampton Roads, 316, 
318; destroys the Nashville, 334. 

Y. 

Yankee (privateer), cruise of the, 
263, 268. 

Yeo, Sir James, captures stores at 
Sodus Bay, 201 ; avoids a battle 
Avith Chauncey, 206. 

York, expedition against, 198; capt- 
ure of, 199; repossessed by the 
British, 204. 

Toung Ttjaser (privateer), fate of the, 
270. 



THE END. 



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